Chapter 37: Picking Up a Lost Loot
The morning was exceptionally uneventful. He went to the Alchemy Building as usual, but since his alchemy skill had reached the intermediate level, it was no longer cost-effective to use the low-level materials there for practice. Zhou Ning planned to find an opportunity to resign in a few days and rent a private alchemy laboratory.
Despite his plans, Zhou Ning's professional ethics wouldn't allow him to slack off. He browsed the forums for a while in the lab, brewed some low-level potions for a few hundred experience points, and then Luo Xi arrived to take over the shift. The two of them shared a quiet lunch, a silent understanding between them.
The person who came to pick up the guns at noon was, surprisingly, Sherlock himself. As the captain of the third squad of the Imperial garrison, didn't the man have any subordinates? God knows why he always worked himself to the bone.
"Five pistols, two rifles. The total comes to 111 Victors," Zhou Ning said, handing the firearms to Sherlock.
Sherlock took the guns, counted the money, and handed Zhou Ning a stack of bills. "Count it."
"No need. This won't be our last piece of business, right?" Zhou Ning was overjoyed but feigned a casual air as he slipped the money into the inner pocket of his coat.
"You're right." Sherlock smiled and handed over another bag. "Here are 50 bullets to be processed. The fee is 10 Roshen per bullet, as we discussed. When you have more guns or the finished bullets, you can bring them to the Xilin Grocery Store in the west of the city. Someone there will handle the exchange. You understand, we're going to be very busy for a while."
"No problem," Zhou Ning agreed immediately, taking the bag of bullets. The official agencies were certainly generous. Fifty bullets represented an income of nearly 50 Victors, which would fill his wallet nicely.
In Braxton's currency system, the Winnie was the lowest denomination and the Victor was the highest. One Victor was equal to 10 Roshen, and one Roshen could be exchanged for 10 Winnies.
Fifty Victors was a small fortune.
However, this presented a new problem. Zhou Ning could only make potions and bullets in the school's alchemy lab, but it was often rented out by others and its material reserves were limited, making mass production impossible. After some thought, he decided to move his plan forward and rent a private lab outside the school.
He tore open a weather forecast stick. It showed one red line and one light red line, indicating special weather like heavy rain or snow was expected that afternoon. The worst-case scenario was acid rain, but it likely wouldn't be that severe.
Zhou Ning rented an umbrella from a shop and walked off campus.
There was a funny story about umbrellas. Early in the game, Zhou Ning couldn't understand why people often rented umbrellas when they seemed so readily available. He posed the question to an NPC, who replied without hesitation, "Umbrellas are expensive!" At first, he thought the NPC was just being silly, but he soon understood. In the world of Apocalypse, umbrellas were a luxury item. One of Darkland's wealthiest merchants had gotten his start selling them.
Speaking of the game
Apocalypse, it had quite a few modes of transportation. In Darkland alone, there were public carriages and intercity trains. Later, in the Northlands, one could find aerial transport like griffins and airships. It was amazing how fantasy and science coexisted.
The public carriages in Darklan City were pulled by two strange creatures similar to kodo beasts, which people called wildebeests—a standard northern creature. The carriage could seat more than a dozen people and would stop on demand, which was very convenient.
Five minutes later, a public carriage passed by, and Zhou Ning waved to stop it.
"To Blair's Bookstore in the old town," Zhou Ning told the driver.
"Blair's Bookstore? This carriage doesn't stop there. You can get off at the Red Violet Tailor Shop and walk. It's a five-minute walk from there," the coachman said.
"Alright," Zhou Ning nodded indifferently.
"That's three kilometers, so six Winnies." A woman in her thirties on the carriage, the ticket seller, held out her hand to Zhou Ning and winked. "Don't think you can get a free ride just because you're handsome."
"Okay." Zhou Ning took six Winnies from his pocket and handed them to her, taking the receipt she offered in return before boarding.
The carriage was mostly empty, likely a result of Braxton's poor economy in recent years.
Zhou Ning took a seat and closed his eyes to rest. He had two goals for his trip to the old city: first, to buy materials and rent an alchemy lab, and second, to pick up a bargain.
About ten minutes later, the carriage arrived at his stop.
After getting off, Zhou Ning followed his memory to a shop called "Blair's Bookstore."
The owner was a portly, middle-aged man of about forty. He wore a monocle and was sitting on a recliner reading a newspaper, surrounded by piles of old books.
This should be it.
A smile touched Zhou Ning's lips. "I heard from a friend that you have a set of alchemy books by an author named Windgunn?"
"Windgunn?"
The shop owner sat up, took off his glasses, and thought for a moment before nodding. "Should be here somewhere, but I'll have to look for it."
Blair's Bookstore was the only second-hand bookstore in the entire old town. Business wasn't great, but its collection was vast. Naturally, the owner couldn't remember the exact location of any particular set of books.
Zhou Ning nodded. "Please do."
Half an hour later, the shop owner hurried back with a stack of dusty books. "This is all I have. A set of five. See if this is what you're looking for."
Zhou Ning picked up a volume and flipped through it, confirming it was indeed written by Windgunn. He was secretly thrilled but kept his expression neutral. "This is it. How much?"
"This is an old set from the ancient Faric period. The minimum price is 20 Victors." The shopkeeper blinked. He had actually bought the set for two Victors, but seeing how much Zhou Ning wanted it, he shrewdly quoted a price that was painful but not impossible.
Zhou Ning's mouth twitched. He turned to leave.
The owner grew anxious and grabbed his arm. "Alright, alright, how much are you offering?"
"One Victor, at most."
"What? One Victor? You might as well just rob me! These are old books from the ancient Faric period!" The owner became agitated, as if Zhou Ning had made a deeply insulting offer.
"One Victor. Not a single Winnie more."
With that, Zhou Ning turned and walked away, counting silently in his head: One step, two steps, three steps…
"Wait!" The shop owner hesitated for a moment, then called out, stopping him. "Five Victors is the minimum! No lower! You have to leave me something for my trouble, right?"
Zhou Ning immediately stopped and turned around. "Deal."
Shopkeeper: …
In the end, everyone was happy. Zhou Ning left with the stack of old books, feeling like he'd just discovered a hidden treasure.
The author, Windgunn, was an alchemist from the ancient Faric period who had invented his own unique system of alchemy. He combined engineering and alchemy to create various alchemical puppets, which he could seal into special cards, a bit like in Yu-Gi-Oh!.
If that guy lived in my time, Zhou Ning thought, he'd be a genius like Seto Kaiba. He'd create the Windgunn Entertainment Group, develop a duel virtual imaging system, and become a superstar in minutes.
But Windgunn had made the mistake of dabbling in life-refining, attempting to give his alchemical puppets true life. This led to a siege by the six nations, after which Windgunn disappeared without a trace.
In his previous life, a player had followed a clue and discovered that Windgunn had hidden his alchemical knowledge within a set of old books in the form of a cipher. The player who eventually got the books cracked a special set of formulas, but he squandered its potential, using it only to make mechanical pets. It still made him a lot of money, though.
Zhou Ning had arrived two years earlier than that player, and now, he had the books.
After finding a secluded alley and storing the books in his inventory, Zhou Ning headed straight for the trade district.
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