Chapter 39: Across the Seas
Zhou Ning immediately chose to read Wendegoon's Alchemical Insights, and a prompt from the system panel popped up.
[You are reading the skill book: Wendegoon's Alchemical Insights. Based on your Willpower, you've gained 4% learning progress in [Puppet Alchemy] (Extreme Calmness bonus +0.4%).]
[You are reading the skill book: Wendegoon's Alchemical Insights. Based on your Willpower, you've gained 3% learning progress in [Puppet Alchemy] (Extreme Calmness bonus +0.3%).]
Zhou Ning let out a sigh of relief. He'd been worried he wouldn't be able to learn it, but to his surprise, there were no prerequisites. Wendegoon really was a good guy!
After more than an hour, a new notification popped up with a chime:
[[Puppet Alchemy] Progress: 94% (+6%). You have learned a new lifestyle skill: Puppet Alchemy!]
[You've unlocked a new recipe: Mini Mechanical Warrior. You've unlocked a new skill: Recipe Deduction.]
Zhou Ning opened his panel, and sure enough, there was a new skill listed under lifestyle skills: [Puppet Alchemy].
[Puppet Alchemy] (Beginner): You can use your lifestyle skills to create an alchemical puppet and seal it into a card.
Whoa, this really is like Yu-Gi-Oh!
Clicking into Puppet Alchemy, there was currently only one recipe—Mini Mechanical Warrior—and a skill: Recipe Deduction.
After reading through the skill description carefully, Zhou Ning suddenly understood: So that's how it works.
The Recipe Deduction skill worked similarly to skill fusion in the game Apocalypse. By consuming experience points, [Puppet Alchemy] could be combined with other lifestyle skills to deduce new recipes.
However, unlike Apocalypse, Recipe Deduction didn't reset the level of the skills involved. It just consumed a lot of experience points.
And that "lot" was really a lot—the first deduction cost 10,000 XP, the second 15,000, then 20,000… and there was also a chance of failure.
A grin crept onto Zhou Ning's face. He wasn't like that player from his past life—he didn't care about burning XP. After all, he was a man who possessed both Occultism and expert-level Precision Machinery. As long as he had enough XP, he could deduce countless recipes.
Give it time, and it wouldn't be impossible to invent a full-blown dueling card game for this world.
He hadn't forgotten: as long as he could influence this world in any way, he could reap plenty of rewards.
Crafting a Mini Mechanical Warrior required a large amount of iron ingots, bolts, some gunpowder, a standard firearm, a piece of parchment, and some alchemy array materials. He didn't have them on hand, but they were all common goods—nothing hard to get as long as you had the money. The problem was, from here on out, he'd be short on both XP and cash...
Zhou Ning suddenly felt a strong sense of urgency.
With nothing to do for now—the herbs still hadn't arrived—Zhou Ning, the idle nouveau riche, opened the simulator once again.
He currently had 30 Traversal Coins. After deducting the cost of renting the alchemy lab, he had about 60 Vecktas left. After some thought, Zhou Ning decided to spend 40 Vecktas to recharge 4 Traversal Coins. That way, he could do one ten-pull and still have enough coins left for a single traversal.
Opening the gacha page, he found that the prize pool for Endless War was locked. When he checked the reason, it said that only after 50 draws from the Mist-Lost London pool would the next one be unlocked.
Zhou Ning: …
Damn it, it's exactly like those crappy pay-to-win mobile games—every trap in the book.
But since it was a seller's market, there was no choice. He could only return to the Mist-Lost London prize pool and roll another ten-pull.
[You've obtained Rare Item: M1 Garand Rifle, includes several 7.62mm rounds.]
[You've obtained Rare Item: Chinese "Hanyang" Type-88 Rifle, includes several .72 ACP rounds.]
[You've obtained Epic Item: Stone Mask.]
[You've obtained Rare Item: German-made C93 7.65mm Pistol, includes several .45 ACP rounds.]
...
Hmm? Something strange snuck in there.
This ten-pull had great luck—nine guns in one go: four rifles, five pistols. If sold directly, they'd be worth over 140 Vecktas. Zhou Ning felt pretty satisfied.
But the only item that wasn't a gun looked oddly familiar.
Zhou Ning pulled the Stone Mask from his inventory and stared at it speechlessly.
It looked exactly like the one from the manga—an ominous stone mask with deeply carved grooves, eye holes, and two fangs at the mouth. Clearly not an ordinary object.
Put it on, and you'd probably turn into a vampire. But… why would he need that? He was living just fine as a human. Why go and not be one?
On second thought, this thing might be better saved for players. Make it a quest reward—an unlockable hidden bloodline. Who wouldn't love that?
Players: ???
After the draw, Zhou Ning had 25 Traversal Coins left. This would probably be the last time for a while. Taking a deep breath, he exhaled and selected a new map: Across the Seas. Then, he clicked Traverse!
[Preparing for traversal… -25 Traversal Coins]
[Please select a traversal mode…]
[1. Direct Traverse.]
[2. Traverse using a Parallel World Template.]
Even though he didn't have much money left, Zhou Ning still checked the templates—just in case he got lucky again.
But clearly, this time he didn't. None of the three templates were particularly strong.
The first one was a returning template: Yakuza Fiend Zhou Ning, priced at 15 Traversal Coins. Cheap, but still unaffordable.
The second was Zhou Ning wearing a Lakers jersey, standing tall at 2 meters, holding a basketball with a hardened expression.
Talent: Athletic Prodigy (Blue)
Skills: Expert Basketball Technique, Expert Scientific Training Method
Personality: Competitive and Stubborn
Title: Basketball Superstar Zhou Ning
Price: 7 Traversal Coins
The third template featured Zhou Ning in a bloodstained lab coat, holding a scalpel, eyes full of malice.
Title: Demon Doctor Zhou Ning
Price: 15 Traversal Coins
Pfft. Lame. Zhou Ning shook his head and picked option one.
[You selected Traverse Mode One.]
[Please choose three out of the following ten talents as your matching criteria:]
[1. Mermaid (Blue): You have exceptional swimming talent. Every time you swim, you feel like a mermaid.]
[2. Muscular Hulk (Green): Your bulging muscles make others tremble at the sight of you.]
[3. Grandpa-in-a-Ring (Purple): Inside your ring dwells the soul of a local powerhouse. You may call him your "grandpa-in-a-ring." Note: Synergizes well with a "trash" protagonist build.]
[4. Faceless Void (Purple): You've got a cucumber growing from your face, but you sometimes have the ability to rewind time.]
[5. Sex Addict (White): You're in heat most of the time.]
[6. Stephen Hawking (Blue): Your intelligence is far beyond normal, at the cost of complete paralysis.]
[7. It's Just Too Big (White): Your underwear needs to be custom made.]
[8. Demon Back (Blue): The muscles on your back are freakishly shaped like a demonic face—great for combat.]
[9. Medical Doctorate (Purple): You're a top authority in the field of medicine.]
[10. Cthulhu (Purple): Wibby wabby, wibby ba bop.]
Please make your selection!
Zhou Ning: …
This batch of options was unexpectedly good—four purple-tier talents! But on closer inspection, #4 and #10 were clearly traps. No good could come from picking either. After some thought, he picked 1, 3, and 9.
[You have selected Talents 1, 3, and 9.]
[Match successful. In the parallel world, you are a charismatic playboy and a scientific genius. You are also multi-talented, having earned your PhD in medicine and a national swimming championship by the age of 20. You possess an ancient-looking ring, an antique you stumbled upon at a street stall.]
[If you die in the simulation, the game ends.]
[Boarding time machine… 1%… 33%… 65%… 95%… Whoosh… Traversal complete.]
[You have arrived on the high seas in the year 1516. From this moment, the wheel of history begins to turn.]
1516? According to Zhou Ning's knowledge of history, that would be shortly after Columbus discovered the Americas. The Age of Exploration was in full swing across Europe.
Zhou Ning couldn't help but feel a bit lucky—thank goodness he'd planned ahead and picked the Mermaid talent!
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