Chapter 2: Gun and Cellphone

Usually, when the card repairers were engrossed in their work, it was the most relaxed time for apprentices.

Duke planned to take a stroll around the shop and think of ways to make money.

At the nearby workstations, the two apprentices, Bobby and Thomas, also started focusing on repairing cards with the card repairers. They quietly retreated to a corner, sharing their candies with each other.

Duke wasn't that bored.

He surveyed Little Sam's Card Repair Shop. On one side was the counter, managed by the full-time worker Bob. On this side of the repair area were four repair workstations, occupied by three card repairers and a spare workstation, usually reserved for the boss himself.

However, the boss wasn't there today; he had gone to the scrap card station in the city to find materials.

"How can I make money?"

Frowning, he felt a bit helpless.

As a transmigrator, he naturally had a lot of Earth knowledge stored in his brain, but when it came to applying it, he found it wasn't of much use. Iron smelting, brick firing, distilling alcohol were all basic knowledge here. Soap, glass, perfume, and similar products weren't rare either. However, high-tech items like computers and cellphones didn't exist here, and Duke couldn't manufacture them.

He turned his gaze from the warehouse window to the outside.

Beyond the low, squat houses, he could see tall chimneys in the distance, billowing with thick black smoke. Unidentified birds circled the smoke, occasionally diving down to feed on the rising spirituality within.

For a beast to evolve into a spirit beast, it needed to consume a significant amount of spirituality.

"That's the Black Serpent Spiritual Gold Refining Factory, owned by the Black Serpent Family. They extract metals with spirituality from ordinary iron ores... it's really polluting," Duke viewed it from an Earthling's perspective. The factory seemed akin to a toxic gas plant, but the entire Snakehead Town was under the Black Serpent Family's control, so nobody dared to intervene.

Or perhaps, no one cared.

The Seven Pagoda Federation didn't have any concept of environmental protection. Developing spiritual energy industries, strengthening human influence, and continually expanding into the Savage Wilds were the mainstream ideologies.

"Spiritual energy... spirituality... the transcendent world!"

Duke's eyes lit up with excitement. Having overcome the initial confusion of his transmigration, he now yearned to explore the breathtaking landscapes of this transcendent world that he had never seen before.

Of course.

To experience the transcendent world, he needed to open his Sea of Spirit. Otherwise, he could only live as an ordinary person at the bottom of society.

"It seems like there are no great inventions to make quick money... Hmm, gunpowder!" A light bulb went off in Duke's mind as he thought of a good idea. "The Seven Pagoda Federation is an alliance of Arcane Mages, and Arcane Mages represent the supernatural power system of this world—Spiritual Magic. Therefore, black gunpowder hasn't been invented yet."

People living here believed that the land beneath their feet possessed unparalleled spirituality.

It was this spirituality that bestowed extraordinary power upon all creatures in the Savage Wilds and formed a system of Spiritual Magic power system.

Collect spirituality to refine into spiritual energy.

It was this more magical form of energy, even more astounding than electricity, that triggered a massive industrial boom.

"Powerful Arcane Mages can bring about cataclysmic changes. So, black gunpowder is undoubtedly far less valuable here than it is on Earth. However, black gunpowder still has significant uses. I can try to see if I can produce black gunpowder in this transcendent world!"

Recalling from his memory, Duke remembered that black gunpowder was composed of one part saltpeter, two parts sulfur, and three parts charcoal.

So, he endured until the midday break, quickly finished his boxed lunch, and then hurriedly walked to another street before turning into a wide alley. Here, there were shops selling all kinds of materials, ranging from spiritual materials to ordinary ones.

After asking around.

Duke furrowed his brows deeply. "Saltpeter, a material that could grow in toilets, is being sold for 1 silver dragon per pound, and sulfur is 30 copper dragons per gram. It's even faster than robbing to make money!"

To configure black gunpowder, he had no idea how many times he'd have to experiment.

The materials needed for numerous experiments would likely exceed the value of a 23 silver dragon Spirit Awakening Potion. "If I had that money, I would've bought a Spirit Awakening Potion... oh right, why don't I scrape saltpeter from the toilets?"

One plan failing, Duke conceived another one.

One pound of saltpeter could be sold for 1 silver dragon. He could easily scrape saltpeter from toilets, although it would be a bit unpleasant. However, it was evidently faster than being an apprentice.

However, after visiting multiple sewage-filled toilets, Duke quickly returned to Little Sam's Card Repair Shop, his face full of disappointment.

The toilets were dirty enough, but there were no traces of saltpeter growing along the walls as he had imagined. There were only various yellowed urine and feces stains, making him feel nauseous.

"Why isn't there any saltpeter growing here?"

"Could it have been scraped off? Probably not, there are no scratch marks on the walls... could it be because the toilets in Snakehead Town are built with stones instead of mud bricks?"

He recalled that saltpeter would grow in rural mudbrick toilets on Earth.

Perhaps there was something in the soil that reacted with urine, generating saltpeter. With stone blocks, this reaction couldn't occur, so saltpeter wouldn't grow.

In any case.

The plan to make money by scraping toilet saltpeter was shattered.

By the time he finished work in the evening and hadn't come up with a good money-making method, he returned home, cooked white rice, and steamed sausages. With his purse feeling empty, this was all the food he had.

The interface of the Spirit Rice Cooker, which was stuck in the card slot, had dimmed.

"If I can't make money soon, I'm afraid I won't even be able to afford spiritual energy." Duke sighed. He took out a slightly worn-out spiritual card from his pocket, staring at it in a daze.

This was his Spirit Dragon Card.

Equivalent to a bank card on Earth, it was issued by the Seven Pagoda Federation. Since Dragon Coins weren't convenient for transactions, Arcane Mages had devised these Spirit Dragon Cards. Buying and selling only required a swipe of the Spirit Dragon Card.

"It seems there's still 57 copper dragons left in my balance, how pitiful!"

"However, these cards are really magical." Duke suppressed his negative emotions and began shifting his focus to the Spirit Dragon Card in his hand and the storage card inserted in the Spirit Rice Cooker.

Both cards belonged to the category of spiritual cards.

Storing spirituality in the form of energy circuits and then imprinting them onto cards was the technological principle behind spiritual cards.

The storage card held a substantial amount of stable spiritual energy, while the Spirit Dragon Card was connected directly to the bank. These mystical spiritual cards were the simplest technology within the spiritual magic system.

"This is the only transcendent power I can access. If I don't open my Sea of Spirit, it's probably the only transcendent power I can access."

"I must open my Sea of Spirit as soon as possible!"

Eating, washing dishes, no nightlife, sleeping.

After tossing and turning for a while, Duke fell into a deep slumber, his mind filled with hopeful expectations for the future.

...

In a daze.

Duke felt as if he was floating towards a place illuminated by brilliant stars.

Countless stars sparkled, endlessly vast, surrounded by pitch-black darkness like the depths of the ocean.

"I'm here again, I've returned!" Duke's thoughts grew clearer, realizing that he was in a dream once more, within the Sea of Spirit. "Just like last night, I've entered the Sea of Spirit through a dream."

He turned his gaze towards the direction with the densest starlight.

The stars guarded two dazzling light clusters that resembled stars. As Duke approached, he could discern that one looked like a cellphone, and the other resembled a handgun.

"My "cheat code'!"

"Wait for me!"