# Chapter 1418: Dangerous Artificer
"You don't need to use that to negotiate with me." She rose from the soft couch, picked up the crystal glass, and drained the flower dew inside in one gulp.
Xu Huo watched her. "It's not really negotiating, but the things he left behind shouldn't be useful to you."
Bai Kou turned back, her face slightly different from how it appeared in District 011, wearing an ambiguous smile. "Valuable, yet useless to me—do you know what you're saying?"
Xu Huo raised an eyebrow, his gaze clear.
After staring at him for a few seconds, Bai Kou finally looked away. "If what you say is true, then it really is something I don't need. But there are plenty of people who want it. If you're smart, you should find a place to hide instead of coming to Platinum Eye to show off."
"My main purpose here is to custom-order props. Do you have any reliable acquaintances you can recommend?" Xu Huo didn't seem bothered about revealing his secret.
Bai Kou was almost amused despite her anger. "What makes you think I'll help you?"
Xu Huo shrugged. "Then I'll find another way."
Though quite irritated, Bai Kou still took out a business card and handed it to him. "This person has a strange temperament. If you have good enough materials, go find him."
"Thanks." Xu Huo put away the card and prepared to leave, but Bai Kou said, "Those two people stealing things in the outer castle—are they your friends?"
Xu Huo paused. "Is one of them the painted face?"
Bai Kou frowned slightly. "Let them go."
With that, she waved her hand and opened a door in the sea of flowers, simultaneously moving Xu Huo outside.
Outside the door was the timed exhibition hall of the Mechanical Castle. As Xu Huo stepped out, he immediately grabbed Tu Xiaoxiao's hand, which was reaching for a weapon displayed on the exhibition platform. "Look all you want, but don't touch."
Tu Xiaoxiao instinctively tried to shake him off, but unexpectedly, a passage appeared beneath their feet. As they fell, Xu Huo quickly pulled Yan Jiayu, who was crouching nearby looking at blueprints, and the three of them were transferred outside the Mechanical Castle together.
Passing vehicles and pedestrians didn't react much to people suddenly appearing nearby. Tu Xiaoxiao angrily pushed Xu Huo's hand away. "What are you doing!"
"That's what I want to ask you." Xu Huo looked at her coldly.
"Don't misunderstand," Yan Jiayu quickly interjected. "Xiaoxiao wasn't trying to steal anything—she just wanted to destroy that weapon."
"As for the reason..." She glanced at Tu Xiaoxiao. "Should I tell him?"
"Say whatever you want, so no one mistakes me for a thief!" Tu Xiaoxiao snorted and turned her face away.
Yan Jiayu then explained the situation. It turned out that the displayed new-style weapon was made by one of Tu Xiaoxiao's elders. However, Platinum Eye had a rule: any mechanical item created must be registered with the government to claim exclusive invention rights. This was a standard patent protection measure, but to safeguard the creator's rights, once registered, anyone using the machine or its core technology had to pay fees to the registrant—regardless of whether they had already mastered the same technology without registering, or whether they used it for personal gain rather than profit.
In other words, whoever registered first owned the mechanical item. Even private use required payment, and if someone used it secretly and got reported, they'd have to pay a huge fine.
Because someone else had registered first, Tu Xiaoxiao's elder could no longer use the machine he himself had made, and was also heavily fined. The artificer had suspected his work was plagiarized, but before he could even apply for an investigation, he was punished first. His blood pressure spiked, and he was literally angered to death. That was why Tu Xiaoxiao had come tonight.
"My great-uncle was literally angered to death, yet his creation is displayed in the Mechanical Castle as an honor by the plagiarizer for a hundred years—how is that fair!" Tu Xiaoxiao said indignantly.
Xu Huo asked only one question. "Is that weapon only an exhibit?"
Tu Xiaoxiao gritted her teeth even harder. "Of course not—it's already gone into production! That plagiarizer jumped straight into the ranks of famous artificers!"
Xu Huo was speechless for a moment, then said, "Have you considered changing your target for revenge?"
"If we could go directly after that person, we would have done it long ago," Yan Jiayu said. "Famous artificers are protected by government personnel and live in very secure places. Players generally can't get in. And if their identity is discovered, Platinum Eye can not only restrict players from entering the city but also issue wanted notices through the game—the risk is very high."
"So it's just about venting anger." Xu Huo commented on Tu Xiaoxiao's actions.
"Getting some frustration out is good too," Yan Jiayu didn't see anything wrong with it. "And I've researched it—if we just break into the Mechanical Castle and damage the exhibits, the worst we'll get is a fine. Exchanging a small cost for inner peace is worth it."
She said this while preparing to re-enter the castle.
"You were discovered long ago. If you'd stayed a little longer, the security players would have arrived. Swallow your pride for now." Xu Huo said.
"I see." Yan Jiayu's face changed color again. She said to Tu Xiaoxiao, "We'll think of another way tomorrow."
Tu Xiaoxiao felt humiliated by being seen as a joke and kept her face tight, saying nothing. Yan Jiayu didn't mind and turned to ask Xu Huo where he was staying.
"Most accommodations are concentrated around Three-Fifths Avenue, but the prices are too high. We're staying at Xiaoxiao's fortune-telling hut on Two-Fifths Avenue."
Xu Huo planned to go to Three-Fifths Avenue. He pointed at his face. "A bit scary at night."
Yan Jiayu saw her own white face reflected in a passing car window, muttered "ugly," then clenched her fist. Her body began returning to normal skin color starting from her head. She flexed her arm muscles at Xu Huo. "New ability from Super Evolution—changing color is a piece of cake!"
Xu Huo said "congratulations." Her physical evolution was top-notch; her extraordinary physical strength could already match ordinary Super Evolvers. After secondary evolution, she'd only become stronger. Having abilities like appearance alteration or detoxification was normal.
Tu Xiaoxiao, however, remained very guarded.
Xu Huo didn't take it seriously. "I have things to do tomorrow, so I'm finding a place to stay now."
"If you need help, contact me. We'll still be setting up our stall on Two-Fifths Avenue tomorrow." Yan Jiayu gave him a new contact method, then added, "I bought two sets of nearby C-rank Instance walkthroughs—easy to clear. After you're done, we can go together."
Xu Huo agreed readily. The three parted ways outside the castle. Yan Jiayu and Tu Xiaoxiao returned to Two-Fifths Avenue, while he headed to Three-Fifths Avenue. On the way, he bought a map and searched for the artificer on Bai Kou's business card using the Message Collection Terminal. Unexpectedly, the first thing that appeared on the projection screen was a danger warning:
"This artificer has been listed on the D-rank Dangerous Personnel List due to multiple instances of assaulting customers."