Chapter 2 Guns and Phones

Usually, when the card repairers are focused on their work, it's the most relaxing time for apprentices.

Duke decided to wander around the shop and think about ways to make money.

The two apprentices, Bobby and Thomas, at the adjacent workstations, began to share their candies quietly as the card repairers immersed themselves in their work.

Duke wasn't that bored.

He surveyed the Sam's Repair Shop. On one side was the counter managed by the regular worker Bob, and on the other side were four repair workstations. Each of the three card repairers occupied one, and there was an additional fourth workstation typically used by the boss.

However, today the boss didn't show up; he had gone to the city's scrap card station to pick up some goods.

"How can I make money?"

Duke furrowed his brow, feeling somewhat helpless.

As a transmigrator, he naturally retained a good amount of Earthly knowledge in his mind. However, when it came to practical application, he found it challenging. Iron smelting, brick making, and distilling alcohol were considered basic skills in this world. Products like soap, glass, and perfume were not particularly rare. As for high-tech items like computers and phones, they simply didn't exist in this world, and Duke couldn't manufacture them.

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

Beyond the low houses, he could see towering chimneys emitting billowing black smoke. Unidentified birds circled around the smoke, occasionally diving in to feed on the rising spiritual energy.

For beasts to evolve into spirit beasts, they needed to consume a large amount of spiritual energy.

"That's the Black Snake Spirit Gold Smelting Factory, owned by the Black Snake Family. They extract spiritual metals with innate spiritual properties from ordinary iron ore... the pollution is really bad." Duke viewed the factory through Earthly eyes, seeing it more like a chemical plant, but the entire Snakehead Town was the sealed domain of the Black Snake Family, and no one dared to intervene.

Or rather, no one cared.

The Seven Towers Federation had no concept of environmental protection. The prevailing ideology focused on developing spiritual energy industries, expanding human influence into the Savage Wilderness, and ignoring environmental concerns.

"Spiritual energy... Spiritual power... The extraordinary world!"

Duke's eyes revealed a hint of eagerness. Having overcome the initial confusion of transmigration, he now yearned to explore the magnificent scenery unseen in this extraordinary world.

Of course.

To truly appreciate the extraordinary, he needed to open his Spirit Sea. Otherwise, he could only survive as an ordinary person at the bottom of society.

"It seems there's no groundbreaking invention to make quick money... Hmm, gunpowder!" A flash of inspiration crossed Duke's mind. "The Seven Towers Federation is an alliance of arcanists, and arcanists represent the extraordinary power system of this world—spiritual magic. Therefore, black powder has not been invented."

People living here believed that the earth beneath their feet possessed unparalleled spiritual energy.

It was this spiritual energy that endowed all living things in the Savage Wilderness with powerful extraordinary abilities, constructing a system of "spiritual magic" power.

Collecting spiritual energy to refine spiritual power.

It was precisely this more magical spiritual power, more mystical than electricity, that sparked a booming industrial trend.

"A powerful arcanist can destroy heaven and earth. So, black powder is certainly not as valuable as it is on Earth, but it still has significant uses. I can try to see if I can produce black powder in this extraordinary world!"

Recalling from his memory, it seemed the formula for black powder was one part saltpeter, two parts sulfur, and three parts charcoal.

After enduring until lunch break, he hastily finished his boxed lunch and walked briskly toward another street before turning into a broad alley. This area was filled with various shops selling all kinds of materials, from spiritual materials to ordinary ones.

After asking around, Duke furrowed his brow. "Saltpeter, a material that can grow in toilets, is priced at 1 silver dragon per kilogram, while sulfur is even more expensive at 30 copper dragons per gram. It's faster than robbing to make money!"

To conduct experiments to produce black powder, who knows how many times it needs to be attempted.

The materials for a sufficient number of experiments would have a value far exceeding the 23 silver dragons for the Awakening Spirit Elixir. "If I had that money, I would have bought the Awakening Spirit Elixir... Right, why don't I scrape saltpeter from toilets?"

One plan didn't work, so Duke came up with another.

Since one kilogram of saltpeter could be sold for 1 silver dragon, he could scrape saltpeter to accumulate money. Although scraping saltpeter from toilets might be a bit unpleasant, making money this way was evidently faster than working as an apprentice.

However, after Duke consecutively visited several toilets with sewage flowing everywhere, he quickly returned to Little Sam's Repair Shop with a disappointed look on his face.

Those toilets were indeed dirty, but there was no sign of the white frost-like saltpeter he had imagined. Instead, there were various yellow stains and feces, making him feel nauseous.

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

"Was it scraped away by someone? It shouldn't be; there are no marks on the wall... Could it be because the toilets in Snakehead Town are built with stones instead of blocks of soil?"

He remembered that rural earthen privies would grow saltpeter.

Perhaps something in the soil reacted with urine to generate saltpeter. After changing to stone, the reaction might not occur, thus preventing the growth of saltpeter.

In any case.

The idea of making money by scraping saltpeter from toilets came to an end.

Enduring until the evening after work, Duke still couldn't come up with a good way to make money. Back at home, he cooked white rice again and steamed some sausages. Money was tight, and this was all the food he had at home.

On the card slot interface of the spiritual rice cooker, the light of the stored spiritual card had dimmed.

"If I can't get more money, I'm afraid I won't even be able to afford spiritual energy." Duke sighed. From his pocket, he pulled out a slightly worn-out spiritual card with a damaged cover and gazed at it absentmindedly.

This was his Spirit Dragon Card.

Equivalent to a bank card on Earth, the Seven Towers Federation issued dragon coins were inconvenient for transactions. Thus, the arcanists developed the Spirit Dragon Card, making buying and selling as simple as swiping the card.

"It seems there's still about 57 copper dragons left in the balance. Pathetic!"

"However, these spiritual cards are quite magical." Duke put away his negative emotions and began to shift his focus, paying attention to the Spirit Dragon Card in his hand and the stored spiritual card on the spiritual rice cooker.

Both cards belonged to spiritual cards.

The technology principle of spiritual cards involves sealing spiritual energy in the form of energy circuits and imprinting it onto a card for storage.

The stored spiritual card holds a large amount of stable spiritual energy, while the Spirit Dragon Card directly connects to the bank. These magical spiritual cards were the simplest technology under the spiritual magic system.

"This is the extraordinary power I can access. If I don't open my Spirit Sea, this is probably the only extraordinary power I can touch."

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

Eating, washing dishes, no nightlife, sleep.

After tossing and turning for a while, Duke fell into a deep sleep amidst beautiful expectations for the future.

...

In a daze.

Duke felt himself drifting to a place with dazzling starlight.

Countless stars sparkled, extending infinitely, surrounded by pitch-black darkness like the deep sea.

"This is it; I've come back again!" Duke's thoughts became clear, and he understood that he was in a dream. "Just like last night, I've come into the Spirit Sea through a dream again."

He looked towards the direction with the densest starlight.

Stars surrounded two dazzling light masses resembling stars. When Duke flew closer, he could see that one dazzling light was shaped like a phone, and the other like a pistol.

"My cheat system!"

"Wait for me!"