Volume 2 Honoring Robin Chapter 3 Operation Codename: Selling Hope
"Master Wizard, the dock of Turtle Island is full. We can only anchor at the outer anchorage and take a small boat to the island."
The sweaty boatswain ran over from the dock and told Mason the bad news. The rude one-eyed sailor cursed:
"There really is a spread of the 'Black Death' in Haiti. It is said that the main island has been completely occupied by damned ghouls . Fortunately, you had the foresight to not let us go there, otherwise we would be doomed."
"Then let's take a boat over there. Do you really need to trouble me with such a small matter?"
Mason now occupied the most "luxurious" two-story crooked bamboo building on the dock as a temporary alchemy laboratory. He was preparing to learn enchantment techniques from Zha Kang.
Who has the time to take care of these little things?
"No, Master Wizard."
Seeing the wizard take out some strangely colored "evil materials" like a magic trick, the superstitious boatswain became even more nervous. He whispered:
"Those bastards want us to pay! Two gold crowns for a boat, that's crazy! I could buy enough rum to drown them for two gold crowns.
You are the hero who saved this island!
They can’t humiliate and blackmail you with this price!”
"Then give it to them."
Mason glanced at it and said:
"In this apocalyptic situation, is money still useful? Can it buy life?"
The young man's cold and direct answer left the greedy old sailor speechless, and he could only turn around and contact the group of vampires who deserved to go to hell.
Mason really doesn't care about the currency of this world. It's just a "mission item" anyway.
“Look, I can really only do this once.
The rainstorm magic just now almost drained all my magic power. I hate this kind of low-magic world. I really don’t know how this damn place was rated as a C-level world?
To me, this is no different from a D-class world without any supernatural powers."
On the second floor of the bamboo building, Zha Kang complained while rubbing the peppermint in his hand repeatedly with his fingers, as if he was massaging the herb.
But there was a faint magical power that seeped into it, making the originally light-smelling peppermint emit a richer aroma.
A few seconds later, Zha Kang handed the herb to Mason. The young man took it and saw its changes:
Enchanted peppermint (expiration countdown: 15 minutes)
Quality: Temporary enchantment material, can be used to make high-level alchemical creations.
Item Description: The finest materials only need to be processed in the simplest way... What? You use them directly without processing? Are you an alchemist who was born a barbarian?
Tip: When you come into contact with an enchanted item, the enchantment branch skill is enabled, currently at Lv0.
"Very useful knowledge indeed, John."
Mason looked at the temporarily enchanted herbs in front of him, and he was delighted that he had learned a new trick that could quickly improve his alchemy and enchantment skills.
But then he shook his head and said:
"But before I can continue, I have to make the alchemist stone. Now I have to ask you to leave, John. You cannot be disturbed while I am making the alchemist stone."
"Because the mysterious inheritance cannot be seen by me?"
Zha Kang had never heard of the "philosopher's stone". He put his arm around Mason's shoulders and said:
"We are already teammates, you can't hide it like this. Let me see it quickly, maybe I can use this secret knowledge to make Xiao Zha return to my arms."
"I asked you to leave because this thing will explode violently if it is made incorrectly. I don't want my new teammate who I tricked into getting killed by accident on the first day."
Mason rolled his eyes and drove Zha Kang out.
He returned to the table and took out several kinds of magic ores that he had just found in the dock warehouse. The reason he had not tried to make alchemy stones before was because he lacked these magic-rich stones as basic materials.
The crafting recipe of Alchemy Stone is unlocked at Alchemy Lv2.
Mason was not lying. Although the finished product was very stable, it was very easy for it to explode out of control during the production process.
The reason is probably because this little thing has the magical effect of "changing the properties of objects".
Simply put, when you hold a piece of fine alchemy stone, you can really turn a stone into gold, but the price of "turning stone into gold" is that you will lose your alchemy stone.
No one would do such a thing as throwing away the watermelon to pick up sesame seeds.
Mason put several small stones with different effects into the crucible, and then poured in a specially prepared solution to ignite the crucible with magic fire. He took a deep breath and stared at the changes of the stones in the crucible.
At this moment he felt that time had "slowed down", his senses were heightened and he could detect any changes in the small crucible immediately.
The talent effect of [Quick Eyes and Quick Hands] unlocked by Alchemy Lv2 is activated, which is similar to bullet time. Unfortunately, it can only take effect when making items and cannot be used in combat.
But it is indeed a magical skill.
With the help of "super senses", Mason's error tolerance rate is greatly improved every time he makes a work.
After three near-losses and seven quick adjustments that seemed an extremely difficult ten minutes, Mason wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked at the irregular gray stone in the crucible.
He used tweezers to hold the still hot stone in front of his eyes.
Primary Alchemy Stone
Quality: Excellent alchemical items, excellent craftsmanship
Effect: Add it when making potions to improve the quality of the finished product, or put it into already made alchemical compounds to make them enter the [Extraction] state to improve the effect. It can also be used as a magical medium when making other branches of creation.
The above actions will cause the Alchemy Stone to be consumed. Currently, the number of times it can be used is [10/10]
Item Description: You can wear it proudly on your chest as an alchemist's medal. Of course, you can also light it and throw it out as a bomb when you are in danger. Believe me, this thing is much more useful than ordinary alchemical bombs.
"Plop"
Mason dropped the grey alchemist stone into the healing potion he had prepared earlier.
As it sinks to the bottom of the potion, small bubbles begin to appear just like sparkling water.
The extraction process required several minutes of rest. Mason took advantage of this time to take out the rare metal obtained from smelting the magic ore with magic fire, and also took out an exquisite bullet mold.
Magic fire jumped out of his fingers and burned a small ball of rare metal to melt it again and then filled it into the mold. After it cooled down, Mason got twelve bullets.
When this thing was taken out with tweezers, its surface was still shining with faint ochre-colored spots. Although it was just the simplest solid pointed bullet, it was undoubtedly still one of those flashy "slutty" bullets.
The young man admired his creation and put the exquisite bullet head in front of his eyes to examine it:
Engineering Bullet Petrochemical
Quality: Excellent product, standard workmanship
Effect: The warhead shaped by earth element metal still possesses the magic of the earth. When hitting the target, it will cause a petrified state of 1-600 seconds, the duration of which depends on the target's magic resistance.
The bullet can be further modified to increase its destructive power and effectiveness.
Item Description: Gaia! Grant me the power of this sneak attack bullet of justice!
Tip: When you have an engineering modified bullet production line, you can mass-produce engineering bullets, and the mechanical modification drawings have been unlocked.
"If I were to make this by hand, the bullets I would make in a day would probably only be enough for me to pull the trigger for 30 seconds... I still need professional equipment. Maybe this is the true meaning of engineering."
Mason looked at the exquisite warhead in front of him and suddenly felt that this thing was not so attractive.
He thought about it and felt that he should be able to find professional bullet assembly line production equipment in the arsenal in the Hogwarts world.
At this time, the extraction of the potion was also completed. Mason took out the alchemist stone, and the number of uses became [9/10]. The extracted healing potion was reduced from two sips to less than one sip.
However, the effect has been improved from only treating minor injuries to being able to treat moderate injuries, and the effective time has been reduced from five minutes to two minutes.
The effect is encouraging.
However, it is obviously not cost-effective to use the alchemist stone, which has a significantly higher production cost, to extract this low-level potion. The real use of this cute little gray stone is to transform high-level potions.
Mason smiled, rubbed his eyes, stood up and opened the door, just in time to see his three teammates greeting the dawn outside the door while drinking and chatting.
“How many people are there on this island?”
Catwoman wore goggles with telescope and night vision functions and looked at the island behind her which was gradually becoming lively. She drank the rum with a strange taste and frowned and said:
"The population density here is even crazier than the most chaotic slums in Gotham, and all the buildings are made of wood. No wonder a fire can turn this place into a hell."
"This is already hell!"
The scumbag next to Catwoman pinched his nose and complained:
"Can't you smell it? The stench of death is overwhelming. I can sense that at least ten people have died on the island as we speak.
Well, just in the last 10 seconds."
Mason said nothing.
He walked up to the kite flyer and handed him the freshly extracted healing potion, asking him to heal the injuries he had suffered from the fall.
"Let's get rid of the people on the ship."
Mason refused the rum offered by Zha Kang. He looked at the bewildered crew members on the dock not far away and gave an order to the one-eyed, superstitious, greedy and stingy boatswain standing in front of him:
"But we don't want money! We only want all kinds of rare things, whether it's magical minerals, leather, herbs, or strange items with unique effects..."
“Jewelry!”
The tipsy Catwoman suddenly said:
“Beautiful, expensive, rare jewelry too!”
"What do you need those for?"
Mason glanced at his oldest sister.
Ms. Selena obviously had no intention of giving up her hobby of collecting jewelry. In order to take care of the feelings of his new team members, the young man reluctantly added the jewelry to the exchange catalog.
"Actually, a beautiful and helpless girl also..."
Zha Kang came over and just opened his mouth when he saw a flash of cold light and the sharp blade was pressed against his waist, causing the black magician to raise his hands and stop speaking his dark thoughts.
The boatswain found a group of men and quickly set off with food.
But their remarkable work efficiency also allowed Team K to see how cheap human life can be in a world approaching doomsday.
A group of ragged young women soon came to the door and said they would do anything as long as they had food, including children under ten years old.
The Kite Man sighed repeatedly when watching this scene. A man with children couldn't stand seeing this. The usually lazy Catwoman also fell silent in her drunken state.
She turned to look at Mason.
The young man was discussing enchantment knowledge with Zha Kang. He noticed Catwoman's silent gaze, was silent for a second, and then waved his hand to let the two of them make their own decision.
Watching Catwoman and Kite Man take out food from their bags and distribute it, Zha Kang, who was holding a pipe and a bottle of wine beside Mason, blew out smoke rings and said to the young man drunkenly:
"You know, Selina is not a good team member. I know about her past, and it seems that the annoying Batman has really trained her successfully. Her kindness will bring trouble to her and us in this doomsday.
Your little brother Charles is not really a qualified explorer.
Indecisive and lacking courage and strength.
Although it may seem a bit cold-blooded for me to say this, Mason, if the world we are going to in the future is mostly like this, they both obviously need to change their mindset.
But you are pretty good.”
The black magician took a big sip of wine, stared at Mason, and said:
"I saw you looking at these people like they were consumables, and I knew you wouldn't hesitate when you needed to shoot them.
But I also believe that Batman is willing to give up his lonesome principles to save someone, and he is obviously not a jerk who doesn't take human life seriously. So, Mason, is it because you joined the Star Society and got cursed that you became cold-blooded?"
Mason took out Old K's alchemy notes and started reading them. He seemed to have no interest in the damn question of Zha Kang, but the dark wizard kept asking Mason and he was annoyed.
He frowned and said to Zha Kang:
"I don't know how the other captains of the Star Club select their members, John, but I think my team has done a good job so far.
Even you.”
"I feel like you're humiliating me, Mason."
Zha Kang snorted unhappily, and asked again a few seconds later:
"Then can you tell me what your code of conduct is? Considering that we will be working together for a long time in the future, I don't want to offend you over some trivial matter and have you throw me into some damn world.
I mean, bottom line.
Just like the annoying Batboy's 'no-killing principle', you should have this thing too, right? "
"Yes! And it's very simple."
Mason looked at Zha Kang, he thought for a moment, and said:
"If I'm forced to sell my morals, it means I'm desperate or there's a lot of money to be made. But look at those people, John."
The young man pointed to the poor women and children who were begging for food around Catwoman and Kite Man below. He shook his head and said:
"Please tell me, what can I gain by abandoning morality for these people? If there is no profit, why don't we be good people?
Does doing random good things make you feel bad? "
"Ha, it seems that our concepts are quite different."
Constantine blew out a smoke ring, using the magic smoke to cover his expression, and said:
"I never thought my captain would be such a kindhearted saint. God, I am becoming more and more pessimistic about the future of Team K."
Mason lowered his head to look at the alchemy notes again.
He didn't care about Zha Kang's sarcasm, because he knew that this guy who had no moral integrity and showed no bottom line was definitely not a good person deep down.
But he can't be considered a bad guy in the traditional sense.
"That's a good thing, John."
The captain of Team K decided to end this unpleasant conversation of mutual probing. He said:
"Being a good person means that when I need to pay a price to get something, at least you don't have to worry about becoming that 'price'."
This sentence made Zha Kang silent for a full ten seconds. He took a deep puff of cigarette and said:
"MD, what you said makes a lot of sense, and I can't refute it. But I still think that if our team wants to go further, we need at least one guy like Batboy who is pessimistic and vigilant about everything and is as ruthless as Green Arrow.
This is the only way to turn the tide at a critical moment."
Mason raised his head with a strange look in his eyes, glanced at Constantine, and said:
"Don't worry, John. We already have a jerk like this, and he's sitting right in front of me talking. I think when we need to be ruthless and do something, you will definitely not let us down...
Don't give me that filthy smile, asshole.
I'm not praising you!
Speaking of which, regarding the issue we just discussed, how to more effectively tap into the world’s wealth, I suddenly have an idea.”
Mason closed the book and said to Zha Kang:
"I suddenly feel that we may need to revise the goal of this operation. In addition to the original plan to find the resources we need, Team K may be able to do something more.
I have a plan!
John, do you know what is the most expensive thing in a world that is about to end?
"future?"
The drunk Zha Kang curled his lips and said:
"Or is it some kind of wishful thinking or something?"
"Yes, it is hope!"
Mason looked down at the ragged women and children, his eyes twinkling, and whispered:
"I have a new idea. Instead of working so hard to collect every penny, why don't we play a big game and use some method to make them willingly give us the most precious things in their hands.
I mean, let’s sell hope.”
