Chapter 1466: New Material
This was a private club; only members could enter, and it only hosted one group of guests per day. Everyone present was on the host's invitation list. Xu Huo had been brought along by Xin Rong on short notice, but since Xin Rong had informed his friends in advance, they all greeted him politely.
There were twelve people in the entertainment hall, two of whom were women. Judging by their attire, most of them were like Xin Rong—well-off and confident. Only two sat a little farther away, and from their behavior, they had come as companions to those nearby.
"Xin Rong, your helper is very young," said a man leaning back in a soft chair, wearing a pink suit and matching glasses, shaking his wine glass as he teased. "Can he handle it?"
"Get out of here. This friend of mine doesn't know weapons; he's just here to have fun." Xin Rong let Xu Huo find a seat and went to grab a bottle of wine.
"Brother Xin is really splurging today. This wine is good stuff!" Another man, who looked refined and scholarly, hugged the woman beside him and kissed her. "Vivi, don't you think so?"
Liao Wei was playing a game and pushed the man away. "They're all bachelors. Who are you jealous of?"
The man laughed heartily. Xin Rong, who was pouring wine, turned to the woman sitting on the other side and said, "Xiao Ying, look at your cousin. She's almost married and flaunts it in front of you every day. Don't you have any thoughts about dating? There are plenty of talented young men here for you to choose from."
"I'll pass," said the man in the pink suit. "My fiancée would get jealous."
"Someone like Bian Jun, once married, will definitely be a model husband," Xin Rong said, smoothly changing the subject.
The others didn't mind and just joked a bit before moving on.
The woman named Xiao Ying was very interested in Xu Huo. She said to Xin Rong, "Bringing your friend here and then leaving him out is a bit rude, isn't it? Introduce him to us. You never mentioned him last time you were back."
Xin Rong sat down casually. "Didn't I tell you guys a while ago? I almost died in another district."
"Don't you say that every time you come back?" Xiao Ying said with amusement.
"This time was different. This time it was real," Xin Rong said with a look of lingering fear. "If it weren't for Old Xu arriving just in time, I would have starved to death a day later. I've never gone hungry in my life. When I came out, my waist had shrunk a whole size!"
Xiao Ying and the others were also players, but they mostly operated within the Platinum Eye or did instances in this district. They either went in groups or had someone lead them. They rarely ventured out on their own and simply couldn't understand Xin Rong's obsession with running off to other districts and repeatedly facing danger without turning back. They couldn't help but advise him not to risk his life like that.
"How many people die in the game every month? You don't have to go out and fight for your life. Why bother?" Bian Jun, the man in the pink suit, said.
"That's different," Xin Rong said. "Life is good now, but who knows what the future holds? If you don't go out, you won't know. There are so many districts, and plenty of them are on par with ours. There are also many families that have trained large numbers of advanced players. But one accident, or even being caught in the crossfire of a Super Evolver's fight, could wipe them all out."
"If you run into a situation like that, you'd have to survive even after escaping. Getting familiar with it beforehand can't hurt."
It was clear the others had heard this argument before. A man with a cold, hard face sitting across from them said, "That can't happen in the Platinum Eye."
"Who can say for sure about the future?" Xin Rong shrugged. "When I went to steal from someone else's place, I never thought I might starve to death in their basement."
"Trust me on this," he added, grinning mischievously. "I've been lucky my whole life. You all know that."
This was just a small interlude, and the conversation returned to Xu Huo. Xin Rong clinked glasses with him, drank, and then introduced his friends.
They had all grown up together, studied together as children, and became good friends as adults due to shared interests. After becoming players, not much had changed, except that Xin Rong sometimes traveled around. The others mostly stayed home to study—either business management or technical skills, all related to machinery and weapons.
Among them, Xin Rong and the cold-faced Zhao Jicheng mainly focused on weapons. Zhao Jicheng had a better background than Xin Rong, with fixed production orders for nearly twenty large-scale weapons, not counting smaller ones.
Liao Wei and Liao Ying, the two cousins, came from a family specializing in weapon research and development. They had the best talent in the group and had each independently developed over a dozen weapons, all of which sold very well.
Bian Jun, the man in the pink suit, and a few others were in intelligent machinery, covering various machines needed in daily life. They also had the authority to equip weapons, but they didn't produce them; they bought them from elsewhere.
The ones who came with Bian Jun and Zhao Jicheng were the Artificers they had each trained. Although they were also players, they didn't participate in the item-making side of things.
The purpose of their gathering today was to dismantle a new type of weapon Xin Rong had brought back from another district.
The Platinum Eye was already very advanced in weapon manufacturing, and the variety of weapons was endless—if you could think of it, they could make it. This was especially true for energy weapons that used entirely new energy sources. But that didn't dampen their thirst for knowledge.
When Xin Rong placed a white metal tube as thick as an arm on the table, everyone who had been lounging around gathered closer.
"Is this a disassembled part?" Bian Jun adjusted his glasses and examined it closely.
"That's right," Xin Rong said, using a tool to remove the magnetic snap fasteners on the side. He gently opened the top of the metal tube, revealing a dense and complex energy structure panel inside.
The chip core of this energy structure was a white substance, not the common color of ore materials found in most energy machinery.
"New material? Or has it been specially purified?" Zhao Jicheng studied it for a moment. "Ordinary precision chips wouldn't be made to this degree."
There were many types of energy available in the game now. Ore was widely used in weapons, but it was usually a mixture of multiple ores, not a single mineral. White ores were relatively rare, and even rarer in weapon applications. They were a bit more common in items.
"The material is white," Xin Rong said. "This is a starter. The energy it releases can power a large aircraft for continuous flight for over twelve hours. After cooling down, it can be used again."
"Such a material exists?" The Liao sisters couldn't help but be curious. "How many times can it be reused?"
"According to the data I've gathered, at least five or six times. And the technical requirements aren't high; it's mainly about the source of the material."
"Where is this extracted from?" Bian Jun asked. "It shouldn't be from any existing ore type, right?"
"I've already analyzed its composition." Xin Rong tapped his communicator. "You'll never guess what it's closest to."
The communicator activated, and the image projected into the air was unmistakably a skull.
(End of Chapter)