Chapter 90: Mechanical Street
Su Xiao dragged his exhausted body out of the Skill Upgrade Pod. Leveling up Blade Master by two consecutive ranks left him fatigued all over and ravenously hungry.
[Blade Master (Passive)]
Skill Effect: Increases blade-type weapon attack power by 99%, blade techniques greatly improved.
Lv.10 Additional Ability:
Universal Rhythm (Advanced): This ability cannot be enhanced in Reincarnation Paradise; it can only be realized through the Hunter's personal comprehension.
Lv.20 Additional Ability:
Blade Aura: Enables mid-range attacks. Sharpness corresponds to Blade Master level. No usage cooldown.
...
After a series of expenditures, he now had 126,900 Paradise Coins remaining.
Paradise Coins came slowly but were spent quickly. The over 400,000 Paradise Coins Su Xiao had earned by risking his life in the Naruto World were now down to just 126,900 after a few hours.
However, these Paradise Coins were well spent. Su Xiao could clearly feel himself growing stronger. If Paradise Coins weren't converted into strength, they were just currency.
Reincarnation Paradise was different from the Real World. Here, you couldn't just have money; you also needed power.
Su Xiao had mostly digested his gains from the Naruto World, with only two things left to do.
He had obtained an item from opening a Scarlet Card earlier, called [Item Modification Device].
[Item Modification Device]
Origin: Second Rank Space Battlefield · Liekayamasi Star
Quality: Dark Purple
Type: One-time Consumable
Effect: This item can fuse one piece of equipment with two materials, thereby improving the equipment's quality. After fusion, the equipment category remains unchanged, but attributes will be greatly altered.
Note: The highest grade equipment that can be added is Purple.
Note: The highest grade materials that can be added are Purple.
Note: Using this item requires the Mechanical Modification skill to be Lv.17 or above.
Rating: 150
Introduction: This is the technology of Liekayamasi Star.
Selling Price: 39,000 Paradise Coins.
...
The function of this item was to synthesize equipment with materials, thereby upgrading the equipment's grade.
Using Purple equipment was the most cost-effective. Su Xiao was currently wearing four pieces of Purple equipment:
Spider Empress (Purple)
Minotaur Lord Arm Bracers (Purple)
Tactical Leather Boots (Purple)
Ebony & Ivory · Imitation (Purple)
Among these four pieces of equipment, the ones worth synthesizing were [Spider Empress] and [Minotaur Lord Arm Bracers]. The other two were either about to be phased out or had unclear functions.
Both [Spider Empress] and [Minotaur Lord Arm Bracers] were very important to Su Xiao. [Minotaur Lord Arm Bracers] was a functional type, while [Spider Empress] compensated for his lack of long-range capability.
After weighing the options, Su Xiao decided to upgrade Spider Empress.
The reason was simple: if the characteristics of [Minotaur Lord Arm Bracers] changed, it would basically be scrapped. The Realm Severing Thread attached to it was the essence of that equipment.
If it were before he had mastered Gun Proficiency Lv.30, Su Xiao wouldn't have upgraded Spider Empress. He was afraid the attributes of Spider Empress would change, causing him to lose his long-range sniping capability.
Now it was different. Even without Spider Empress's abilities, he still had long-range sniping capability. This was his own ability, unrelated to equipment.
The benefit of strengthening his gun skills was evident here. Now, it wasn't about what gun Su Xiao could use, but rather which gun had the most power, and he would use that.
Using the [Item Modification Device] wasn't simple. He needed to find a Contractor with Mechanical Modification skill Lv.17 or above.
"For that kind of Contractor, I'll have to go there."
Su Xiao walked towards the southwest corner of Reincarnation Paradise. There were many districts within Reincarnation Paradise, each gathering various types of Contractors. Contractors in the same district traded equipment, skills, materials, etc., that they needed.
These districts were spontaneously formed among Contractors, not official organizations.
...
Reincarnation Paradise, Mechanical District.
Su Xiao stood before Mechanical Street. A metal sign hung at the entrance, boldly stating:
'Divine System Contractors, get the hell out of here. We only have wrenches and machinery here. We don't believe in gods! Stop coming here to preach!!'
Su Xiao couldn't help but chuckle lightly. The Science Faction looked down on the Divine System. He wasn't part of the Science Faction, so he didn't know the specific reason.
Entering Mechanical Street, it was filled with a sci-fi style. Some Contractors piloted several-meter-tall mechs walking down the street, while others were Contractors modified to be half-mechanical.
A burly man, whose entire body except for his head was almost entirely modified into machinery, sat by the roadside, holding a cup of machine oil, drinking it with relish.
Seeing Su Xiao, the mechanical burly man raised his cup.
"Bai Ye, over here."
Su Xiao recognized this mechanical burly man. The two had met in the Arena. This guy was covered in weapons and would self-destruct at the slightest disagreement.
His code name in Reincarnation Paradise was Machine Oil, because he liked drinking machine oil.
Su Xiao walked over and declined the special drink Machine Oil offered.
"Found the person?"
"Found him, but that guy has a screw loose. Hard to negotiate."
Machine Oil burped contentedly. The gaps in his mechanical body glowed red hot, his internal machinery running at high speed.
"I pay him, he does the job. Nothing hard to negotiate about."
"True enough. Let's go then."
"Wait."
Su Xiao took out some scattered electronic parts. Machine Oil frowned.
"What's this?"
"Originally a tablet computer."
"What thing?"
Machine Oil looked at the pile of electronic parts, finding it hard to believe this was originally a tablet computer. The pile of parts looked like it had been stomped on a few times and then forcibly disassembled.
"Cough~"
Su Xiao coughed awkwardly and explained the previous situation to Machine Oil.
"Oh, Sasuke fried this thing with electricity. You want to recover the game progress inside? Wait, let me study it."
Machine Oil tried to assemble the tablet. After a long while, the tablet computer was assembled.
"Can it be fixed?"
"Well..."
Machine Oil's face showed difficulty.
"Fixing the tablet itself isn't a big problem, but the Yatson memory card inside is damaged. How exactly did you disassemble it? Come on, show me. I'm very curious."
Hearing Machine Oil's words, Su Xiao waved his hand, not wanting to make a fool of himself.
"Is there a way?"
"Of course there is. If I couldn't recover something like this, I wouldn't be in the mechanical business. If you hadn't taken it apart yourself, I could have fixed it for free. But now, not only do I need to replace the Yatson memory card, I also need to recover the data. You go buy the Yatson memory card, and I'll handle the data recovery. Free of charge."
"Thanks."
Machine Oil had a straightforward personality, similar to his combat style: crazy artillery bombardment.
Together, they walked deeper into Mechanical Street, winding around a few turns before entering a small alley.
In front of a rusty iron door, Machine Oil raised his sandbag-sized iron fist and pounded heavily on the iron door.
Clang, clang, clang!
Su Xiao could clearly see a layer of rust falling off the iron door.
"Who is it, knocking at noon?"
A lazy female voice came from inside the door. The iron door opened, revealing a girl wearing a white shirt that hung down to her thighs. Her fair, beautiful legs were tempting.
This girl had a head of fluffy blonde hair and dark circles under her eyes, as if she often stayed up late.
"Machine Oil, you bastard, looking for me in the middle of the day. Do you want to die?"
"Oh? You want me to *****?"
"Tch, hasn't that thing of yours been modified?"
"How could I modify that? That's a man's symbol."
Machine Oil pushed past the girl and walked into the room.
"This is my friend, Bai Ye. He needs you to modify something."
"Mm, they all call me Mechanical Girl. You can call me that too. But, Machine Oil, you actually have friends?"
Mechanical Girl yawned as she turned to close the door. Her room was a bit messy, filled with various machinery. The most eye-catching was a robot that was half-disassembled.
"Uh... I guess he's a friend. I got to know him after he cut me into six pieces."
"Huh?"
Mechanical Girl was a bit stunned.
"Don't worry about such trivial matters. Bai Ye, tell her about your business."
Machine Oil tilted his head, signaling that they could talk.
Su Xiao took out the Spider Empress sniper rifle and the Item Modification Device. Before he could speak, Mechanical Girl quickly walked over.
"An Item Modification Device from Liekayamasi Star? Good stuff."
"Use it to modify this sniper rifle. What materials are needed?"
Mechanical Girl picked up Spider Empress and began studying the gun's structure.
"Materials, nothing more than metals. Don't get your hopes too high. Without materials with high compatibility, it's impossible to improve the quality of this gun. At best, it will increase the base attributes."
As she spoke, Mechanical Girl yawned again.
"Is that so? How about using Soul Crystals as materials instead?"
"Of course you can. If you have Soul Crystals (Small), they can perfectly substitute for the required materials, ignoring the requirements..."
Before Mechanical Girl could finish, Su Xiao took out two Soul Crystals (Medium).
These were the remaining Soul Crystals (Medium) after the Survival Trial ended. He had three in total. He had obtained twenty Soul Crystals in the Naruto World, so he didn't need these three.
"One substitutes for one material. No problem, right?"
"If you don't mind the loss, no problem."
Mechanical Girl scratched her head and glanced at Su Xiao, her eyes clearly saying: 'Where did this rich guy come from?'
"Modification price."
"30,000. No haggling. Otherwise, find someone else."
Machine Oil had told Su Xiao earlier that Mechanical Girl had a strange temper. She only gave one price. If someone haggled with her, she would ask them to leave.
"Deal. How many days will it take?"
"Hmm... Let me think. According to your Contractors' timeline, after you return to the Real World, you can come pick it up before your next entry into a Derivative World. I'll rush the work for you."
The price and time were both within acceptable range. Su Xiao signed a temporary contract with Mechanical Girl.
"Oh, right. What are your Strength and Endurance attributes? It would be bad if you couldn't use it after the modification. You don't need to give me the exact numbers. Above 50 points or below 50 points?"
Su Xiao pondered for a moment. "Above 50 points."
"Then no problem. In the next Derivative World, I'll let you experience what I call violent aesthetic shooting. Bang, one shot, and the enemy shatters~"
Mechanical Girl made an explosion gesture, her cheeks slightly flushed.