Chapter 83: Gains from the Rewind
[Two new items have been added to your Hall of Curiosities. Please click to view.]
To be honest, the rewards from this rewind were unexpectedly great. Not only were two new items added to the Hall of Curiosities at once, but he also gained a purple-tier talent.
For the first time in a long while, Zhou Ning felt the thrill of being an overpowered player.
So this is what cheating feels like? It's absolutely exhilarating!
He opened the Hall of Curiosities, and sure enough, two new items had appeared on the Endless War shelf: [Tony Stark's Super Soldier Serum] and [Tesseract].
Clicking the "Claim" button beside each item granted him 7 and 8 traversal coins back, respectively. With the 12 coins he'd already received as a reward for clearing the stage, he actually came out of this rewind with a net gain of 7 coins.
That was no small feat. Zhou Ning, who had been keeping the game running by constantly recharging, finally got a taste of the joy of freeloading.
Afterward, two new synergies appeared in the item bond section, one of which was already complete.
[Serum Collector (2/2): Super Soldier Serum + Tony Stark's Super Soldier Serum. Bond activated: +2 Agility, +2 Constitution.]
[Infinity Stones (1/6): Tesseract + ??? + ??? + ??? + ??? + ???]
No wonder mobile gamers love gacha mechanics—collection obsession really is an incurable human condition.
Closing the Hall of Curiosities, he opened his inventory and selected the two new items to view their descriptions.
The panel popped up with the following prompts:
[Tony Stark's Super Soldier Serum: Epic-tier item. A semi-civilian product developed and improved by Tony Stark in the Earth-83716 universe. Effects are relatively mild with no side effects. Can be directly injected. Enhances metabolic and all bodily functions, taps into human potential, and is compatible with all enhancement-type serums.]
[Tesseract: A container for the Space Stone, one of the six Infinity Stones from the Endless War universe. Contains a Space Stone. Only effective in the Earth-83716 universe and some derivative universes. In this universe, it is purely a collector's item.]
Zhou Ning: …
To think the Tesseract he had high hopes for turned out to be a dud. He could ignore that for now. But Tony Stark's Super Soldier Serum pleasantly surprised him. He would never target Tony Stark again—this guy was truly a genius!
Being able to further enhance himself after already injecting the Super Soldier Serum was essentially a brand new path.
Zhou Ning took the serum from his inventory and, without hesitation, injected it into his vein.
A sharp pain instantly spread throughout his body. His heart pounded, and he felt like his blood was boiling—two surging flames clashed and swelled inside him!
But the pain faded just as quickly. In about thirty seconds, it had subsided. The two flames in his bloodstream had fused. Zhou Ning could feel subtle changes throughout his body, and his physical capabilities had clearly improved.
When he reopened the game panel, the notifications had already flooded the screen. One message in particular thrilled him.
[You have used Tony Stark's Super Soldier Serum. Fusing with Super Soldier Serum… Fusion complete. Attributes permanently increased: Strength +2, Agility +3, Constitution +2!]
[You have used Tony Stark's Super Soldier Serum. Fusing with Super Soldier Serum… Fusion complete. Attributes permanently increased: Strength +1, Agility +1, Constitution +4!]
…
[Injection complete. You have gained a total of: Strength +7, Agility +8, Constitution +9, Spirit +3.]
[Your elite specialty "Extraordinary Physique" is leveling up… Upgrade complete. Original specialty upgraded to "Extraordinary Physique (Advanced)".]
[Extraordinary Physique (Advanced): Your physique has reached a supernatural level. Increases primary attribute scaling from 0.35 to 0.5 per level. Passively regenerates 4 HP/sec and 4 Stamina/sec.]
Zhou Ning couldn't help but raise his eyebrows. If the previous version of this specialty was already strong, the upgraded version could only be described as overpowered.
The primary attribute scaling had increased from 0.35 to 0.5, and now it had a new passive effect—automatic regeneration of health and stamina. It was practically a half-dragon bloodline. His endurance had gotten a massive boost.
Even more impressive was that the primary stat bonus was retroactive.
Zhou Ning opened his character panel to check his stats.
Agility had increased by an extra 2 points, while Spirit and Willpower had both increased by 3. At level 16, his Agility had already broken the 50-point mark. Some level 30 Rogues in his previous life didn't even reach that high. At this rate, he really was sprinting straight toward becoming a boss.
…
Because he had stayed up until after 5 a.m. "playing the game," Zhou Ning didn't wake up until 10:45 Thursday morning.
There was still some bread left in the room. He ate a few pieces, threw on a coat and hat, and hurried out of the apartment.
He had already decided what he wanted to do today.
Professor Wesley's batch of Intelligence Potions was scheduled for delivery in a week, but since they were already finished, there was no reason to delay—he might as well deliver them now.
As for the afternoon, Zhou Ning planned to rent a carriage and take a ride along the Canal District and the banks of the Seton River, to see if he could locate that blue-roofed house from the TV series.
Professor Wesley should be in his alchemy lab by now.
About half an hour later, Zhou Ning retrieved the 150 completed Intelligence Potions from the lab and brought them to the alchemy building's workshop. He knocked on the door.
"Come in," said Professor Wesley.
Zhou Ning pushed the door open and saw that the lab was filled with smoke. Gears and parts were scattered all over the floor. Professor Wesley was in the middle of something, while a somewhat unfamiliar girl assisted him. She was probably the new assistant who had taken over Zhou Ning's duties. She looked up at him and stared for a while, frozen.
Zhou Ning gave her a quick glance. The girl looked pretty innocent—her cheeks flushed red in an instant, and she quickly lowered her head.
As he walked closer, Zhou Ning noticed some unassembled mechanical parts lying on the table. They were etched with intricate, cryptic alchemical arrays.
It was a form of applied alchemy. Judging by the number of components, this was a large-scale project. Zhou Ning narrowed his eyes. He had known Professor Wesley was skilled in applied alchemy, but he hadn't expected him to be this advanced.
"Give me a moment," Wesley said without looking up.
"Sure," Zhou Ning replied, then stood to the side and observed.
Although Zhou Ning had already reached expert level in alchemy, he had focused all his specialization on potion-making and hadn't studied applied alchemy deeply. Before long, a notification popped up on his panel:
[Albert Wesley (Lv48) has demonstrated Applied Alchemy to you. Your alchemy proficiency increased by 17 points.]
…
About twenty minutes later, Professor Wesley let out a quiet sigh. He had completed the construction of a half-human-tall, somewhat bulky mechanical golem. Its arms had been modified into a sprinkler and a broom. Powered by the alchemy array, it could carry out cleaning tasks.
"It's so smart. Is it alive?" the girl asked curiously.
"No. It's just a golem that runs on an alchemical array. Creating life is forbidden territory—only the gods may tread there," Professor Wesley said in a low voice. Then he took off his gloves and walked toward Zhou Ning.
"Sturwell, is there something you need?"
"Sorry to interrupt. I've finished the 150 bottles of Intelligence Potion you assigned me," Zhou Ning replied politely, placing the potion case on the table.