Chapter 1002
Chapter 1002 - 988 The Beginning of the Life Cycle Industry
1,338 words
•
7 min read
Lu Ping’an, after becoming a Decree-level professional, acquired the ability to turn potential pollutants into actual Taboo items.
That was his "Investment" talent and "All Things Breathing Martial Arts" considering "Taboo items" as living entities or life forms, and investing in them.
In fact, the principle is quite simple; it’s about treating these "living entities" as individuals, introducing them to Profession Modules provided by the Taboo Library, and guiding them through "Advancement into a profession" to become some kind of "professional".
"... or to put it another way, to me, Taboo items are like magnets, potential pollutants are like embryos with the potential to be magnetized, and ’Professions’ are the specific magnetic properties written into them, uh, or perhaps, a metaphor similar to a cassette tape might be more understandable. In that case, these junk Taboo items can also be regarded as old cassette tapes that can be rewritten..."
Indeed, by this time, Lu Ping’an had already displayed the characteristic of the "Eternal Moving Spirit".
Life Bank never operates as a charity; whatever happens during the transaction, the outcome is assured to be an expansion of Life Bank’s assets.
Unlike "Knowledge," "Magic Plants," or "Demons," where just one new sample is distinct, as long as someone is willing to sell Taboo items, the workshops subordinate to Life Bank are willing to buy, and the price offered is still relatively reasonable... clearly not Lu Ping’an’s at least 30% acquisition price. By Lu Ping’an’s estimate, it’s probably around 60% to 70% of the actual valuation.
"This only proves that Life Bank will gain even more."
After a bit of research and seeing the dazzling list of junk Taboo items in front of him, Lu Ping’an understood this new operating mechanism.
Can they be directly decomposed? Indeed, if Rule-levels can be decomposed, not to mention these Black-iron and Brass-level junk..."
In a way, it’s a sign of the times. In the past, Lu Ping’an would have been overjoyed with just a Black-iron level item, which could even draw envious looks from members of the Special Service Team,
but now, in his mouth, these Taboo items of Black-iron and Brass, hard-earned by his teachers, could only be called "junk".
"... ’Junk’ can also be recycled and used for rebirth..."
By considering "Taboo items" as a part of life, the entire workshop system naturally became incorporated into the Life Bank’s production system.
𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖
A piece of "junk" here would be sorted and decomposed, eventually returning to "material".
There is nothing abnormal about this; after all, even a superpower nation began a "garbage recycling" program to address the shortage of rare metals.
"... ’Modules’ and ’embryos’ still available?"
Once decomposition is done, there are "clean embryos (unmagnetized magnets)" and "designated module pollutants (specific magnetism)" as two components.
What follows is a natural reshaping and reconstruction...
"... This has reduced the cost of Taboo items by a lot. Uh, one-tenth? Or one percent?"
Previously, to mass-produce a Taboo item, Lu Ping’an needed to obtain the specified "Profession Module" from the Taboo Library, and then use his Investment Ability to empower a "high-grade embryo" that could withstand it.
It’s hard to say whether the former is more expensive or the latter; both are exorbitantly priced, one is the Profession Module and Taboo Knowledge that can be used for a professional’s own breakthrough, costing hundreds of Life-points with ease.
The other is the "potential pollutant" capable of sustaining it... Those designated high-grade materials are quite troublesome to get. Even the mass-producible Vortex Stone, after leaving the Green Planet and returning to Earth, lost its magic.
Fourth-tier "Modules" typically costed around four or five hundred, plus the price of a qualified embryo which was impossible to estimate, gambling on at most a two or three-layer enchantment success rate, only a very small number of Decree-level strongmen could afford to play with these.
Also, due to the Vortex Stones becoming mediocre once removed from their homeland, there was a massive scarcity of high-level "embryos" (price increases were not the issue, the problem was the shortage), Lu Ping’an’s ability had almost become useless after leaving the Green Planet.
After all, besides those capable of selling their own knowledge and Decree-level professions, no one could afford the Library’s Profession Modules, and then waste them on premium pre-contaminated items.
In fact, during this procedure, a batch of high-quality "pre-contaminated items" materials were obtainable, specifically the Luka people’s Sommen Steel, an extremely rare and valuable harmonizing metal that could meld various unrelated metals into one, manufacturing alloys that met specific requirements.
However, this item, as the Luka people’s designated Taboo military-grade weaponry, was the kind of high-threat weapon that was spread one slice per conflict during internal wars.
Consequently, not only was it scarce and pricey, but also overly sensitive, where crafting a handful of items on a small scale would be fine, widespread production would simply be a waste.
Lu Ping’an had thus crafted only one long spear, and there seemed no need to elaborate on what it was specifically for; He stored all other materials, hoping they would never be needed.
And on the territory of the Feather Tribe, even after dismantling their city gates, he obtained a multitude of special metals, which are now being used for the modification of the Ark, making them unavailable for immediate use.
"...Storing the valuable Extraordinary metals as military facility supplies is probably the better choice."
Currently, the Ark was undergoing shell customization at the Volcano Secret Realm, with materials like the "city gate" and "Feather Tribe antiquities" integrated into it.
God knows how much material will be eventually required, whether additional acquisition is needed, and the current stock cannot be touched.
But with this step in the Workshop, "sales inventory" was directly, substantially replenished.
"...Embryos can be directly re-injected, with much lower consumption compared to pre-contaminated items, and what’s most important is that the success rate isn’t two or three layers, but seven or eight layers. Even in case of failure, the embryo is not necessarily consumed."
These embryos, which were already Taboo items, had simply been stripped of their characteristics, waiting for a matching feature to come along and the chance of becoming a new Taboo item would be high.
After all, the originally low "success rate" witnessed the dramatic scene of pre-contaminated items awakening into Taboo items, which in a sense, was "creating life"—turning a multitude of ordinary objects into a new "source of contamination."
Even if all the materials were optimal, the success rate wasn’t going to be high, and failure would mean both items are ruined.
But through this cleansing, it was like a "living being" changing professions, and naturally, the difficulty was different... and the value as a product certainly took on an entirely different meaning.
"A piece of rubbish that requires you to drink three jin of water every day, so that either your opponent or you might suddenly suffer a headache at a certain moment in combat, versus an item that causes a sudden headache at a specified time for a few seconds. Even with the same rating, the value is completely different."
Professionals have so-called professional compatibilities, and so do these Taboo items. With annotations from the Life Bank, characteristic labels such as "death," "curse," "headache"... are marked. If matched, it’s possible to use modules stripped from other Taboo items, or you can place a custom order from the Courtyard Library.
Consequently, it’s as if there’s a "re-education" assembly line, one that’s destined to turn trash into treasure.
And this means not only that new trainees have great equipment to use, but the Courtyard now possesses a product that can be mass-produced....
"This process of creating life, of awakening the inanimate to become animate, ’from death to life, from nothing to something,’ isn’t it just the thing Big Cat lacks, the direction of my evolution? Perhaps, I can find something in it..."
— End of Chapter 1002 —