What was this?!
In Phinks' eyes, this was blatant provocation from Uvogin!
If the uncle could tolerate it, the aunt certainly couldn't!!!
Phinks clenched his not-yet-sandbag-sized fists tightly.
"Don't think just because you ate our sticky rice cakes that—huh?!"
Suddenly, Phinks' nose twitched.
He froze.
Why did the faint scent coming from Uvogin smell very similar to the sticky rice cakes they had stolen from those other kids before?
That light fragrance of glutinous rice had left a very deep impression on Phinks when he first smelled it.
Even now, he hadn't forgotten it.
That was why he had always held a grudge about Uvogin stealing those rice cakes from him.
And he wasn't the only one who remembered that smell.
"That's right. That's the smell of sticky rice cakes."
Behind him on the motorcycle seat, Feitan, carrying a baseball bat almost taller than himself, spoke quietly.
They had stolen the rice cakes together, so of course they both remembered the smell.
Feitan's nose twitched as well, and his eyes narrowed as he looked at Uvogin.
A faint killing intent began to gather inside them.
"Sticky rice cakes, huh? Yeah, they really do taste pretty good~~~"
Seeing their anger successfully stirred, Uvogin grinned widely, thoroughly enjoying the act of irritating them.
It also helped vent the frustration he had just experienced at Arvin Locke's place.
After all, one of the best ways to feel better was to transfer your anger onto someone else.
"I personally made sure to taste them properly for you guys!!"
BOOM!!
The moment Uvogin finished that suicidal provocation—
Phinks and Feitan's anger exploded.
"I'll kill you here today!!"
Phinks roared with rage, swinging his arm and charging forward with his fists flying.
He didn't care why Uvogin still smelled like sticky rice cakes.
Right now, he only wanted Uvogin dead.
Feitan gripped his baseball bat with both hands and followed closely behind.
"Bring it on!!"
Seeing this, Uvogin didn't get angry—instead he became even more excited.
He raised his voice and shouted:
"You think I'm scared of you?!"
"I haven't had enough fighting yet! One comes, I beat one! Two come, I beat them both!!!"
With that, he charged straight toward the two of them without losing momentum.
A massive fight was about to erupt!!!
Thud!
Bang!!
Clang clang crash!!!
Smack!!!
By the time Machi arrived after chasing them down—
Uvogin, Phinks, and Feitan were already rolling around in a chaotic brawl.
Machi observed the fight from the side for a moment.
Then she casually pulled a broken stick from the ground.
Standing outside the fight, she occasionally took advantage of openings and smacked Phinks on the head.
She had actually wanted to hit Feitan too.
But Feitan was too short.
She couldn't catch him properly.
And so, while the garbage hills of Meteor City descended into complete chaos—
Inside Arvin Locke's empty house, faint waves of Nen aura quietly spread.
Time passed.
No one knew how long.
Then—
"It worked!!"
Inside the room, Arvin Locke—sitting cross-legged on the ground—suddenly opened his eyes, a flash of light appearing in them.
During this time, he had finally discovered a method to reasonably reduce the aura consumption of his inventions.
If everything worked as expected—
It might even reduce the cost to the absolute minimum, almost approaching zero.
"I guess this counts as properly using my transmigrator cheat together with Nen abilities."
Arvin Locke murmured with a bit of satisfaction.
The method he discovered was based on Restrictions and Vows, creating an entirely new condition and effect.
He named it:
[Standing on the Shoulders of Giants]
[Standing on the Shoulders of Giants]:
By standing on the shoulders of giants, one can see farther—borrowing the wisdom and achievements of predecessors to assist and surpass oneself. When receiving a [Request] or [Commission] and performing an [Invention], if the user already has a corresponding invention in mind that meets the conditions, directly inventing that item will reduce the consumption of aura and Nen proportionally to how well it matches the request.
In other words—
When someone gives Arvin Locke a Request or Commission, if he can invent something based on his own understanding and an existing concept already in his mind, then the aura consumption will be reduced.
And the more perfectly that invention matches the request—
The less aura it consumes.
Simply put:
Before this, Arvin Locke's inventions relied entirely on the [Inventor Master] ability itself to generate suitable inventions based on requests.
But now, with [Standing on the Shoulders of Giants], everything depended on Arvin Locke himself.
He would personally select the final product and invent it.
No need to rely on Inventor Master to generate options.
No middleman taking a cut.
For example—
Earlier, Uvogin's commission had been: "I want sticky rice cakes."
If Arvin Locke already had the Sticky Rice Cake Maker in mind as the solution—
Then he could invent it directly without relying on Inventor Master to determine the item.
In that case, because the invention perfectly matched Uvogin's request, the aura consumption would become extremely small, almost negligible.
"So in the end, I still have to rely on myself…"
Arvin Locke slowly exhaled a long breath.
"This is also testing how much knowledge and accumulation I personally have as an inventor."
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