dkrc Chapter 17 Yes, I ate it.
Chapter 17 Yes, I ate it.
Su Fan's life remained regular these past few days, with him frequenting the city's various cinemas.
He did come up with a solution: the strange objects he created were all of the Dust level, which might mean there were other levels above the Dust level.
Perhaps I can enhance the artifacts again, and then they might gain additional abilities. After all, the three artifacts I created—the Shared Dream Pillow, the Unexpected Wealth Compass, and the Seven Emotions Gourd—have something in common: the same dust level, the same three abilities, and the same two costs.
Then Su Fan tried to strengthen the Seven Emotions Gourd. His inspiration came from Gu worms. Gu worms have mother Gu and child Gu. If his Seven Emotions Gourd evolved again and gained a splitting ability, it could split into [child-Seven Emotions Gourds]. Wouldn't that kill two birds with one stone?
That is, the remaining lifespan is used to create and absorb emotional crystals, and it can also control the gourd.
Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. Su Fan sensed that it was feasible, but his lifespan wasn't long enough. His lifespan didn't support the second evolution of the Emotion Gourd.
Including his previous accumulation over the past few days, Su Fan has gathered more than a thousand emotional crystals, enough to offset about three months of his lifespan.
Things can't be left unresolved indefinitely; they need to be addressed eventually.
So Su Fan also began creating wondrous objects.
Without constraints, everything is just empty talk. He needs a mechanism to ensure that Chen Yang and the others, after obtaining the Seven Emotions Gourd, will return the "Emotional Crystals" in the next dream as required.
Simple trust is too fragile in the face of huge interests and the unknown, especially since the "Luo Jiuchuan" he is now playing is an arrogant and powerful figure.
While it's theoretically possible to achieve the goal by intimidating them—for example, Luo Jiuchuan could act arrogantly and make various threats—it's ultimately unreliable.
Therefore, the core of the first wondrous object created this time is constraint, or rather, contract.
Su Fan began to conceive the idea.
What he needs is a wondrous object that can "witness and bind the agreement." The price cannot be too high, and its function must be pure.
He searched through the rented room and found a cheap calligraphy brush he had bought during a trip. It also carried the metaphor of "convention" and "exchange".
Su Fan picked up the inexpensive beginner calligraphy brush. The handle was made of ordinary bamboo, and the bristles were already somewhat dry and hard. It symbolized "writing" and "recording," making it an excellent embodiment of the spirit of contract.
He calmed his mind and gripped the pen with both hands.
The concept itself is not complicated; its core lies in "constraints" and "witnessing."
It is necessary to serve as a constraint on both parties to the transaction, and if either party fails to perform after entering into a contract under witness, they will be punished.
Perceived cost.
It requires payment of three years of lifespan or 10,950 emotion crystals.
Su Fan breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, he could accept the price. So, come out!
After concentrating for three seconds, the ghostly blue text appeared:
[Strange Item: Contract Pen]
Rank: Dust Level
Feature: Contract Formation
Cost: Three years of lifespan
rule:
1. A contract must be entered into by both parties in a voluntary and sensible manner, through words or clear thought, and must contain specific terms.
2. 【Contract】The contract pen can automatically transform the agreed content into a visible "contract text", which can float in the air or fall onto the paper for final confirmation by both parties.
3. [Performance] If a party breaches the contract without a "just cause" as defined in the contract when the conditions are met, the preset cost will be automatically triggered and the cost will be enforced.
cost:
1. Holding a position enhances one's "social presence," meaning one is more easily remembered or attracts attention in a crowd.
2. When a bad debt occurs—that is, when one or both parties to a contract breach the contract, regardless of the reason—the contract is considered a bad debt. When the accumulated number of bad debts reaches 10% of the total number of all valid contracts entered into by the holder since using this contract, the contract suffers irreversible loss and is completely destroyed.
Su Fan was taken aback when he saw the price: the [Unexpected Wealth Compass] weakens the user's presence, while the [Contract Pen] strengthens it. It was quite a coincidence. Did that mean the price was useless to him?
The two costs may even cancel each other out, so if you don't like the cost of a wonder, you shouldn't just endure it, but rather look for a wonder that can offset that cost.
This is barely good news for Su Fan.
Previously, when faced with the cost of the [Unexpected Wealth Compass], Su Fan's solution was to wait until he rested at night and put it into the storage space of the [Seven-Colored Gourd].
The second cost surprised Su Fan. Theoretically, if the other party breaches the contract, the contract pen will forcibly execute the contract. However, if the bad debt ratio exceeds 10%, his one-year lifespan will be wasted.
If the first contract is a bad debt, does the "Contract Pen" disappear? Or is the penalty enforced first, and then it disappears?
To use the Contract Pen's Contract Fulfillment ability, you need to have at least ten contracts successfully executed beforehand. But if you can guarantee contract execution yourself, why create a strange artifact?
It's very simple. Let's assume the first contract is in good standing. If one party defaults on the second contract, the bad debt ratio will immediately reach 50%, which is truly a dilemma.
However, since it was a rare item that Su Fan had obtained by risking his life, Su Fan accepted it.
Su Fan began creating artifacts suitable for teleporting items. Since he didn't know what would be suitable, he started experimenting randomly!
He took out a brass ring and began to envision its features: inter-space teleportation.
After all, there are legendary rings like teleportation rings, paralysis rings, teleportation rings, and critical hit rings, so there must be a connection between rings and teleportation, right? It can't be as outrageous as giving a fruit knife the "life-extending" property.
Su Fan sensed the cost, and wow! A full ten years of his lifespan! This superpower seems a bit too inhuman, what does it think of his own lifespan!
But Su Fan had no choice and finally agreed.
[Rare Item: Teleportation Ring]
Rank: Dust Level
Feature: Item Transfer
Cost: Ten years of lifespan
rule:
1. [Receiving] The user continues to know the recipient's real name and has a clear impression of their appearance in their mind.
2. [Transfer] Items to be transferred cannot have living characteristics and cannot exceed one cubic meter.
3. [Teleport] Users can initiate short-distance spatial jumps. The destination must be within the user's field of vision and the distance must not exceed one kilometer. This feature can be used three times per day.
cost:
1. The brain's ability to remember paths and determine directions in conventional three-dimensional space becomes "interfered" or "lazy," leading to a lack of sense of direction.
2. Users will feel uncontrollable drowsiness and have a strong desire to sleep.
Being directionally challenged and prone to sleepiness are acceptable costs, since these things can be mostly ignored, except when needed.
Su Fan has gone to great lengths to make Chen Yang and the others work, so if he were to give them the same extraordinary item as himself, the Seven Emotions Gourd, it would be a great honor.
The three Seven Emotions Gourds require a lifespan of fifteen years, meaning the investment cost is as high as twenty-eight years.
Su Fan felt that he could save some money, otherwise he was really afraid that he would have no future.
For working-class people, a must-have item would have storage capacity, and the price could be a bit higher, as long as it's affordable.
Moreover, he can no longer create strange objects in the short term; he has to wait for Chen Yang and Jiang He to help him collect emotional crystals and convert them into lifespan.
At that moment, someone spoke in the chat group.
【Mountain and Sea Boundary】(Group Chat)
Bookworm (Jiang He): "Have you all used the Emotional Crystal? If not, I'm willing to buy it; I can offer 100,000 yuan."
Bixi (Wang Jianguo): "This thing is so expensive! Good heavens. But I've already used it. We used to have a three-day period of mental fatigue after leaving the Mountain and Sea Realm, right? After using the Emotional Crystal, I didn't have that mental fatigue, and I felt super comfortable."
Du Yu (Jiang He): "@Master Bi Xi, what do you mean by 'used'? How exactly was it 'used'? Please describe the process in detail."
Jiang He sensed something was wrong. She knew that the Emotion Crystal was magical; it was the first physical object brought from the Mountain and Sea Realm to the real world, and it was also equivalent to a universal currency in the Mountain and Sea Realm.
Although according to Luo Jiuchuan, emotional crystals can enhance mental strength, she really didn't know how to use them.
Ya Zi (Chen Yang): "Yeah, Uncle Wang! How did you use it? I also felt terrible for those three days. If this thing could cure it, that would be great! I won't feel terrible next time. I'll keep it in my room like a treasure."
Bixi (Wang Jianguo): "I made a typo. It's not 'use,' it's 'eat.' I ate it, and then I felt that fatigue disappear."
Ya Zi (Chen Yang): "Uncle Wang, when did you become so refined? Why don't you just say you've eaten?"
Silverfish (Jiang He): "???"
Jiang He's fingers hovered over the screen, momentarily at a loss for words. She had considered many ways to "use" it—holding it for meditation, placing it on her forehead, or even setting up a ritual around it… but she had never thought of the most primitive and direct way of "consuming" it.
Is this reasonable? The hardness of emotional crystals is simply impossible for human teeth to bite through! Moreover, emotional crystals are chemically inert, so how could they possibly be absorbed by the digestive system!
If it weren't for her previous contact with the people in the chat group, and the fact that she had encountered some inexplicable things these past few days, Jiang He would have assumed that the other party was just playing a trick on her.
Silverfish (Jiang He): "Master Wang, are you sure? You 'ate' it? How did you eat it? Did you bite it with your teeth? Or did you swallow it directly? What did the crystals... taste like? What did they taste like? After eating them, besides the fatigue disappearing, did you experience any other physical sensations? For example, fever, chills, dizziness, or... any difference in perception?"
Bixi (Wang Jianguo): "When I woke up, I found the emotional crystal next to me. I licked it, and the stone melted in an instant! It really was like a cotton candy, turning into a wisp of gas... no, anyway, it was gone! The heavy, tiring feeling in my body was also gone, and I felt much lighter! My mind was clear too! This is what eating it is all about."
Silverfish (Jiang He): "Master Wang, are you sure it dissolved after you 'licked' it? And not by biting it or using any other tool? Did it make a sound when it dissolved? Did you feel anything in your mouth? Did you experience any other unusual symptoms afterward?"