Chapter 103: Partner

Chapter 103: Chapter 103: Partner

"I always have my reasons."

Ning Ye’s expression stiffened. She turned her head away, not daring to keep looking at Xiang Yi.

"Anyway, let’s drop it. I still need to finish connecting the rest of the extraction tubes so the extraction device can run at full capacity."

"Once everything’s locked in, feeding the Blood Crystal Worms won’t be a problem either — just put food in on a schedule every day."

Ning Ye kept her eyes on the mechanical arm she was operating inside the containment chamber as she continued, "The Living Iron yield really isn’t that high right now."

"One issue is the size and grade of the Abnormalities — that’s not something we can fix in the short term."

"The Abnormalities at the site I went to recently were only about the size of an arm. Bringing one back wouldn’t produce much more than what these Blood Crystal Worms already give us, and I’d have to start from scratch figuring out its habits and how to contain it. Way too much hassle."

"Speaking of which..." Xiang Yi cut in briefly. "I did promise to help you catch an Abnormality at some point."

Ning Ye gave a small shake of her head. "No rush. Like I just said, the ones at that location are too small, and we only have one containment slot left anyway. If we’re going to bring something back, it should at least be worth it, right?"

"Even a Shuffling Monster would be a better pick than those things, so if we want to boost output, we need to look at other angles."

"A Living Iron Extraction Device should be able to handle up to a hundred transport tubes running simultaneously. The problem is this one only has forty installed."

"So what are you saying?"

"I can get my hands on the blueprints for the custom transport tubes and syringes. But the materials and the equipment to actually make them? That’s on you."

"Let me think..."

He could probably source the materials through the robots, though it would take a bit longer than ideal.

Master Chang was another option. He definitely had connections with people at other scrapyard collection points and could likely arrange a purchase.

If all else failed, there was still the old junkyard ruins to dig through. That trash heap hadn’t been completely demolished — roughly half of it was still sitting there, a mountain of electronic and mechanical scrap with nowhere to go.

As for manufacturing, handing it off to the robots should work, but...

"If it’s just a matter of manufacturing."

Xiang Yi suddenly extended his hand. A stream of liquid metal poured out from his backpack, coiling around his fingers before slowly condensing into a dagger.

"As long as I understand how something works, I can make it from scratch — no equipment needed."

Ning Ye blinked at him. "You can do that now?"

"Picked it up just a couple days ago."

He’d somehow gained the ability after surviving the orbital laser strike.

Before, he’d needed existing machinery to work with. Now he could build from nothing.

"The catch is, the more complex the thing I’m making, the more Spiritual Power it burns. Even a dagger like this takes a pretty significant toll on me right now."

Ning Ye tilted her head. "Is a dagger really that complex?"

"I’m just that weak."

"Oh."

She studied the dagger resting in Xiang Yi’s palm with open curiosity. "So is this a new ability of yours?"

Xiang Yi thought it over. "I’d say it’s more of an extension of my base ability than anything new."

"Right, so the manufacturing side can be your problem, then."

Ning Ye shut her laptop again. "There is one thing I need to be upfront about, though — I’m broke."

She said it with complete and utter shamelessness.

Xiang Yi wasn’t surprised. Getting access to proprietary tech was never going to be free.

"How much are we talking?"

"Five million."

"robbery?" Xiang Yi felt like he’d been saying that word a lot lately.

"Can’t be helped."

Ning Ye opened her laptop and pulled up an officially certified Human Federation website.

It listed the patent licensing fees for the Living Iron Extraction Device and all related technologies.

Just accessing the technical documentation cost a minimum of five million Federation Coins up front. Commercial usage rights were priced at something even more obscene.

Even once Xiang Yi and Master Chang’s Blood Crystal Factory was up and running, they’d probably need months of revenue just to afford it.

"Look on the bright side — with all hundred tubes running, even if every single one is connected to Blood Crystal Worms, you’re still looking at five grams of Living Iron a day. That’s forty thousand a day, 1.2 million a month. Less than five months to break even."

"And if you manage to catch a bigger Abnormality along the way — a Shuffling Monster, say — you could easily multiply that income several times over, right?"

When he framed it that way, five million didn’t actually sound that unreasonable.

And the Living Iron wasn’t just for selling, either. Xiang Yi’s own abilities were heavily dependent on Abnormality Material.

"Will the containment room even have enough space by the time we scale up that far?"

"We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it."

Xiang Yi gave a nod. "That brings us to the real question — where am I supposed to find five million? You can’t seriously expect me to pull that together within a week of breaking out of prison."

"As for money..."

Ning Ye glanced over at the Containment Boxes stacked in the corner. "Didn’t I mention a client who wanted High-Quality Blood Crystals? He said he could absorb an order worth around ten million."

"The rest we’d have to find new buyers for, which will take time. I’m not exactly a professional middleman."

Ning Ye’s terminal suddenly buzzed. She glanced at it. "Well, that’s convenient timing."

"Message from the client. He wants Blood Crystals worth twelve million — six kilograms. He’s already wired two million as a deposit."

"There you go — two-fifths of five million just like that. The only thing is we’d need to arrange a time to hand it over in person..."

She trailed off, looking at Xiang Yi.

He understood what she meant. Still, he asked to be sure: "Outside the city or inside?"

"Outside, obviously. Abnormality Material is a nightmare to bring through the city gates — you’d get taxed at the checkpoint."

"Got it. I can handle smuggling it in for you later. Once it’s inside the city, you shouldn’t need a bodyguard anymore, right?"

As far as he knew, the hidden passage leading to the Southeast Suburbs sewer hadn’t been discovered yet.

Though the government might have found it by now — they were just too tied up dealing with the company, or Master Chang’s people had already quietly buried it.

Ning Ye wasn’t surprised that Xiang Yi had a way to move goods into the city. "Right, no need for an escort then. You drop the stuff somewhere convenient, and I’ll go pick it up."

"That being the case, the remaining Blood Crystals come to..."

"Twenty-five kilograms."

Xiang Yi immediately started turning over how to move the rest of the High-Quality Blood Crystals.

The robots seemed interested in that kind of thing too, and they paid better than Ning Ye — nine hundred fifty per gram for standard quality, three thousand per gram for premium.

Bulk deals would never go for full price, but the final number would still be decent.

The main bottleneck right now was finding buyers. Xiang Yi could live with something in the two-thousand range per gram.

"I should be able to handle part of the Blood Crystal problem. But that’s not urgent yet — there’s something else I want to ask your help with first."

"About this..."

Xiang Yi pulled out the Laser Rifle.

He gave Ning Ye a rough rundown of the effects his Spiritual Energy modifications had on equipment, along with the business arrangement he had going with Master Chang.

What he needed from her was to help run the numbers — calculate the conversion efficiency of different types of flesh into Blood Crystals, and test how different laser equipment performed after being modified with Blood Crystals of varying quality.

Ning Ye agreed without hesitation. "Running calculations and data analysis? No problem."

"Great, thank you. Oh, and one more thing while we’re at it."

"Could you try to study the Abnormality Weapon my Spiritual Energy produces? Figure out the underlying mechanics and help me get something published."

"Hold on — exactly how much do you have on your plate right now? Just tell me everything at once."

"In the short term, that should be about it."

Ning Ye shook her head repeatedly. "Can’t do it."

"I’ve studied Spiritual Energy theory, but I’m not a specialist in Spiritual Energy or Spiritual Ability Users."

"If you actually need someone like that, I can reach out to my partner. Her research into Spiritual Energy theory goes a lot deeper than mine."

"A partner, huh..."

Seeing the hesitation on Xiang Yi’s face, Ning Ye said, "She’s not from around here. No connection to you or your situation, and she’s someone I trust completely."

"I wouldn’t be where I am today without her."

Ning Ye’s tone left no room for doubt. Xiang Yi dropped the hesitation. "Then I’ll leave it in your hands."

"Alright. I’ll reach out to her and get back to you in a few days."

"Sounds good. I’ll get going then."

"Where are you heading at this hour?"

The answer, of course, was that the time had come — he had someone to kill.

But Xiang Yi wasn’t about to say that out loud. He answered casually, "Daily quests."

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