3 Chapter 3 Commissioned by Asdo.

Keqing was typically rather fair, but stern in Genshin Impact from what I knew of her, as she didn't have much coverage in the Liyue storyline and I never played the game when she actually had some events with herself in it. But as I snapped a sword in half over my knee by using a towel and a small iron rod to focus on the sword's obvious stress point...

Oh, she was all but spitting mad.

Keqing then lightly stomped in impatience as then she held out a hand and said firmly. "Let me double-check you, hold out your hand."

I didn't hesitate, I just held out my hand and her minorly callused hand took my wrist and I felt a heat fill my wrist and fill my arm that was like the warm of a thick blanket coming out of a dryer or relaxing on a chilly day in the warm sun's rays. "You don't have cultivation or magical energy?" She noted and then raised an eyebrow as she looked up at me and flatly stated. "You don't have any ki either?"

I nodded and used the excuse I had already cooked up. "Orphan, so I never had the resources to learn and take care of myself to fuel myself during such training but learning mundane science is free in the public library, so I learned as much as I could," I answered and she blinked before her eyes softened and she nodded in understanding.

"I see... Well, your acupoints are decently developed so you would have a decent talent for martial arts like most from Mondstadt. Still, without further testing using special tools or ritual sites, I cannot see your cultivation or Vision potential." She mused to herself before she sighed and let go of my hand to cover her eyes with that hand as she visibly took a deep breath... Held it for a long minute and then released it in such a way I could all but hear the inner scream coming from within her mind.

I patiently remained silent and let her process her thoughts and she didn't disappoint as she grumbled to herself. And then she literally kicked a stool through a wall with the foot arcing with purple lightning and as she stared at the hole through the workshop wall, all the workers silently held their heads down and refused to look over here.

"I have to trust these weapons to keep my men alive Jake Barris." She said softly as she stared at the broken wall. Then she continued with that soft yet cold and chilling voice. "Liyue supported the Ling clan in their smiths going off to become strong smiths in becoming cultivators and martial artists... But that investment has now paid us back in arrogant martial artists and cultivators who pass off their debt of forged weaponry to neophytes incapable of forging..."

She held out her hand towards me and a flicker of light formed upon her palm was a jade green card. "Here, this a worth a lot of gold coins as it's a mid-grade spirit stone that's actually valuable to even myself." Keqing took a breath and said coldly. "You shouldn't catch any blame for this from the Ling clan, they are clearly at fault and we would have given them a harsh reminder within the next few weeks either way."

"But you only sped this up. If you have something worth Liyue sponsoring your experiments come to me for weapons, and do further research yourself if your projects have other values." She finished and then she sparked with literally and I closed my eyes instinctively as she became a bolt of lightning that shot out of the hole in the building leaving me standing there awkwardly in the Millelith workshop.

I quickly beat a retreat from the workshop at the awkward stares of the workers there, and as I left I made sure to keep the spirit stone in my palm, within my jacket pocket so I couldn't lose it.

"Now the question is can I buy a house with a single middle-grade spirit stone?" I muttered to myself under my breath as I didn't know the value of property here in Liyue to say nothing beyond Keqing's words that the stone was actually supposed to be worth a lot of gold coins which was the most valuable lesser coinage.

So after some thought, I decided to go use this side of Liyue's bank to see and gather more information.

The Liyue bank was a massive structure in of itself and I realized this would be a hellish thing to raid or steal from as just coming into the bank I saw how mounted on the second floor of the bank there were guards with oversized crossbows mounted on the railing all with glistening metal wires pulled back and aiming spiked bolts at the people walking below to deal with would be trouble makers.

Also, the structure itself was clearly built to withstand great punishment as the roof was held up by thick pillars of dense limestone that had bronze metal bands wrapped around the limestone to reinforce it.

Either way, I quickly stopped gawking like a bumpkin and made my way over to an empty teller who gave me a practiced smile as she gave a clearly rehearsed line. "Hello, welcome to Liyue's southern bank, how may I be of assistance?"

I responded clearly and without a rush. "I was curious as to where I could go to acquire property here in Liyue and believed the bank would be the appropriate place to start. Also, I was curious as to the current conversion rate for medium-grade spiritual stones to gold coins?"

She blinked before she smiled and said understandingly. "Ah, you are foreign... So you are not aware, well here in Liyue, spiritual stone prices are heavily regulated and kept at a high price to keep them available and not snatched up by the clans and dojos in mass. Either way, a medium-grade refined spiritual stone is worth as per usual a hundred low-quality spiritual stones, and each low-quality stone is worth a thousand gold coins... Leading to a single medium stone being worth one hundred thousand but rather than gold coins to break down such a stone we use gold tokens with spiritual stone dust mixed into its melting so they cannot be minted without cost in of themselves." She explained before taking a breath and containing naturally.

"As for property. Yes, indeed the United Bank of Liyue has many properties within the city of Liyue and some outside the walls of the city though those are recommended to only be sold to martial artists or cultivators for obvious reasons." She finished and I blinked at the news before smiling wryly as her words were all too damned true.

I came across the Grudge monster just walking to Liyue in the bright cheery morning light of the day... I didn't want to imagine what it was like out there in the dark.

After a moment of thought, I responded. "May I get a listing of properties or something to that effect?" I asked and then came the fun process of property hunting as she lead me into the back behind the teller area into an office area. And then took out a folder with simple drawings of properties, their limits, and the surrounding properties.

We went back and forth, about stuff like the size of the house. The laws in Liyue for more mechanical and industrial places so the people wouldn't be complaining about noise, and of course the 'danger' price.

"Liyue as you know, even as a foreigner and new to the city has three districts, the industrial, business, and of course port docking section on the eastern part of the city. In the middle of the city is the government and lesser clan section. While on the western and north side of the city is the Five True Dojos, the Four Great Clan's, and the temples and inns for visiting cultivators. Either way, the closer you are to the northwestern part of Liyue the safer you are from any demons that manage to sneak into the city." She explained.

Either way, I didn't have the money to get a premium home in the 'safest' area of the city, so after looking through the listings I found a decent house with a large shed that I could operate out of... And of course, the cost was suspiciously dirt cheap.

"So why is this house so cheap with it being almost in the lesser clan area?" I asked curiously and her lips twitched.

For a moment she didn't respond and then she smiled and said shamelessly. "Oh, the last seven buyers were all found to have died after getting their yang sucked dry from their bodies by the spirit of the first owner."

I raised a finger as I was about to deny the property as I didn't want to mess with a fucking ghost. But then she continued blandly. "Truly, I don't blame her. The last seven buyers attempted to harvest the ghost woman's yin energy and paid for it with their lives... She said she doesn't mind having a roommate or. Someone technically owning the property, but the other cultivators and martial artists of Liyue don't dare mess with her due to her being, strong, cruel, and highly unreasonable to those that offend her." She said with some kind of fucking idolization in her damned voice.

I flatly respond. "Nope, I have to check behind the curtain of my shower before I go to the bathroom... I don't think I could live with an actual fucking ghost."

"Half off listed price." She responded equally flatly and our eye's met in a silent contest of wills... But in the end, I needed the damned money.

"Fine... But if I die, I am going to haunt you in particular." I said with a cold smile and she shivered and looked at me unsurely at how I so assuredly said I was going to fucking haunt her ass till the end of her time.

Either way, I signed the paperwork, traded that medium-grade spirit stone to her and got some smaller poor quality spirit stones along with those spiritual gold coins as well as change. And finally, I was given a key to the house and the woman exhaled in relief at the whole process going through.

"Hey, if you survive for a month, come look up and I will buy us dinner to celebrate." She said cheerfully and all but fucking skipping out of the office while my eye twitched at the sight.

I held the heavy bronze key and with the address firmly impressed into my memory along with where the address was on a map of the city limits of Liyue, I realized there wasn't anything else to do other than get a move on.

-

All too soon, I reached my new home. It was a two-story, three-bedroom house with a walled-in yard with an overhanging archway gate I had to use the house's master key to get into. Looking around I saw the large shed/possible guest house I knew would become my workshop and then I took in the main house.

Built-in the more medieval Chinese style that Liyue favored, the building was square with wide arches on the sides that marked where the two floors were, making the house look like it was almost just stacked atop one another, instead of being built together.

I took a deep breath as my key slid home into the thick wooden door of the house, and with a heavy ominous clicking noise that vibrated like standing in front of a large speaker playing heavy bass... I opened the door with said door creating a damned unholy noise between a gator's snarling hiss of a growl, and one of those large bright yellow squeaker novelty ducks at pranks stores.

"Helloooo?" I said unsurely and in response, the house groaned as the door closed from behind me silently without that previous groaning noise or anything. "Nope," I said flatly twisting on my heel and pulling at the door handle but as though the door was literally fused shut it didn't budge at all and neither would the handle so much as a jiggle to give me the hope of breaking the door.

For a split second, I considered taking out Fatebringer and dumping its clip into the door but I shivered as the wooden floor I was standing upon creaked and I felt cold air almost caress the back of the back of my neck.

I woodenly turned my head and as I did so, the first thing I thought was. 'Blue hair?' And then as I refocused I realized A, this was the ghost and she was just staring at me naught but a couple of feet away, and B... Why the fuck was Qiqi a ghost instead of a zombie, and more importantly, an adult with tits!?

"Pork buns?" I said keeping my face calm as I held up the dinner I got from one of the street stalls and her bright purple eyes blinked as she looked down at the pork buns that one could vaguely see through the crumpled up rice paper.

Her head tilted to the side in confusion and then her eyes snapped from my food and looked back to me as her lips opened and a smooth soft voice rang out. "You bought the property?" She asked quietly with her voice being like a soft wind that caressed my ears with how little depth there was to the voice.

I nodded slowly and held up the bronze key as I said straightforwardly. "Yup I bought the house from the bank just today, I don't want any trouble and I literally don't even have cultivation or anything so we can be like roommates that don't bug one another," I said truthfully and her head tilted to the other side as she seemingly took me in more seriously or just with more interest.

"Ah... So you won't sneak into my room?" She mused to herself and my lips twitched at how she almost sounded disappointed at not getting a meal delivered to herself that she could justify.

"Nope, I will take a bedroom, and beyond me using the shed for my experiments I won't bug you at all." I said straightforwardly and she put a finger to her lips as though my words were incomprehensible to herself.

And then she questioned me again as though my answer would change. "You aren't using a treasure to hide your cultivation in order to sneak into my room and steal my vital yin?" She demanded with a heavy pressure falling on my shoulders.

But I answered not angrily or even in a rush. I just flatly retorted. "Nope, hell no. I am only interested in women with a pulse, who can bear me children, and is willing to do some hand-holding or sharing a book while snuggling together up on a bed in front of a fire."

Qiqi's face twitched from her overly serious and almost threatening previous posture and for a moment there was silence and then she said plainly. "You are the worst." And then she broke apart into motes of fading light that dissipated into nothingness.

I just stared at where 'big titty' Qiqi was previously... And then when nothing happened like her reforming, I went into the kitchen and ate my dumplings, and went to go check out the shed/guest house.

"Hmm..." I muttered taking in the large single-room building and saw that thankfully there were some easily popped-open windows at the top that I could open with a hooked stick so I would get some ventilation, also the floor was a good hard stone pad so I didn't need to worry about some tiles or wooden floor buckling under the weight of whatever I brought in or built.

I was happy enough with the large room especially seeing a couple large heavy duty table's against the wall so with that done, I went back into Liyue to get the stuff I needed to start the tech tree.

"Solar is too fragile, finicky, and with Liyue being a port city, it often has cloud cover." I muttered as I went over possible forms of power generation and then I shrugged as I had a good bit of money left so I first went to the industrial section and made some orders for copper, zinc, tin, and a bunch of other metals I would need. Then went to the more niche 'alchemists' to get some acids and finally I went to a blacksmith to pick up a bunch of coal and some casts for ingots and plates of metals to be made.

Finally with all that done and I got home I begin the process in bringing technology to this world. The easiest piece of technology that was used during the industrial age was in earnest. The Sterling Engine. The engine, ran off a system of using a direct heat source on the end of an almost closed container and the pressure building within the container would force the gas within to expand and thus push the piston within to move. And simultaneously as the piston pushed down the tube more air would be forced in completing the circuit as the motor piston would push the spokes of a wheel that would be then hooked up to a transformer to generate electricity.

Now using a small acetone, or oil burner would make a single desk-mounted Sterling Engine make a good five to ten volts of electricity but you could for one scale it up with hotter flames and some water added to the bottom of the piston space to keep the bottom cold to make the temperature reaction more violent. But there was nothing saying I couldn't jury rig a dozen of these stirling engines together to create even more power via combining the transformers to lead their power to a central battery.

And that's what I did. For the entire rest of the day, I created a half dozen working Stirling Engines using the stuff I bought previously. "Now how the fuck should I measure voltage without a voltmeter?" I asked to myself as I realized that terrible little fact of life as the loud thrumming of the Stirling Engines rang out making my ears tinge a bit in pain.

For a moment I considered doing the salt water test but then realized I definitely had more than fifty volts... And getting to breathe bleach gas would be fucking stupid.

So I got the materials in iron, aluminum, copper, and nickel and then I ground the last three metals into a dust from the shavings I got, so I could make a paste out of the slurry that I then covered the iron rods in so I could make some really shitty welding sticks. "Almost to godhood Jake, not too much more bullshit," I muttered to myself as I kept in close mind the prototypes for the 3D printers used in Satisfactory that were absurdly durable and at their base... To me, with Satisfactory and Deep Rock Galatic technology all but beaten into my head, it was simple.

In Satisfactory the explorer/world harvester had this 3D printer gun, and dissembler that would synch up to a pocket dimension attached to the explorer, and from there. They would be able to use the builder gun to build machines that would do the bulk of machinery as the 'particle disassembler and reassemble could only use basic materials or finished products to make the machines.

The one used in-game which used spatial energies passively generated in the universe was utterly beyond me in all senses of the world for its energy, which could within seconds make an entire space elevator out of materials. But the lesser versions that worked a good deal slower were within my reach.

Basically the most basic version of the 'Build Gun' was essentially making a jumbo speaker array that would work in combination with a magnetic system that would melt down the metals under intense electromagnetic rays while the audio waves would gently force atoms together to form the results I wished.

So with Stirling Engines making power, I began welding together a circular ring of 'speakers' which were just the bare bones rings of conductive metal that would oscillate to make the audio waves. And then from there, I made a spiral ring of nickel so that when its magnetic field was activated would hold up a reactive piece of metal in the air and would be forced to spin at insane speeds while being cooked and made molten by the magnetic forces.

Then following the fucking weird science of Satisfactory I 'somehow' and I do mean somehow was able to use the jury-rigged speaker system to pulse at certain intervals at a stupidly high and deep bass level that actually made me feel ill and my vision to blur at the insane level of bass that came out of the speaker system that began shaping the molten metals into what I wanted... Oh so fucking slowly.

So as I left the visibly vibrating minature house to let it work for a good bit, I saw Qiqi standing in front of the door with a large black umbrella held over her head to block off the fading twilight light from touching her form.

"Why is the house vibrating?" She asked with her head tilted to the side in confusion.

For a second I thought to explain the science of oscillating sound waves and electromagnetic forces basically 3D printing metal into the plates, shapes, and strands that I would need to make Satisfactory machines... But I realized instantly she would have zero idea what that meant.

So I answered simply. "I am doing some work. Is it disturbing you too much?" I asked with some concern as I realized I could use some futons or mattresses to line the walls to absorb a lot of the sound and vibrations.

Qiqi for a moment paused before shaking her head and then spoke in her typical soft inflection. "Don't do it in the early morning as that's when I go to bed." She finished simply and then like before she broke apart into motes of light making my lips twitch at how I couldn't get a word in really... But she was a ghost so maybe, not becoming besties with my ghost roommate was for the best.