Looking at the message on her phone, Tang Xin raised an eyebrow.

"Tangtang, what are you looking at?" Her deskmate's curious face leaned over.

With a light press of her thumb, the phone reverted back to a transparent glass panel. Turning her head back, she raised her brow again, "Dad and Mom are going on a trip."

"A trip? To where?"

"They didn't tell me, but I can probably guess." Tang Xin hummed lightly. Although they hadn't told her about her cousin's situation, she'd understood most of it from the neighbors since the Stargate Special Reserve Team had come looking for them.

She put down her phone and took out a pen, doodling on the glass panel with some dissatisfaction, secretly calculating something in her mind.

"Tangtang, did you hear? The Super Competitive League is coming to our school to pick extra trainees. Is the CCSL planning to expand enrollment?"

Tang Xin turned back and looked at her best friend's silly, sweet, and cute face. It seemed that ever since the Continental League, her friend had truly become a faithful fan of her silly cousin and showed fast-growing interest in Eteliria, at least now being able to distinguish what CCSL really was.

Too bad she still didn't understand that her cousin wasn't a Chosen from CCSL.

And for some reason, her friend had found a screenshot of her cousin stepping out of the arena, half his body in shadow, and used it as her phone's screensaver.

Every time she saw it, she was hit with déjà vu and vehemently demanded the silly girl change it, but unexpectedly she was refused.

"Why Tangtang? I really like this screenshot. It's very cool."

"Are you blind? What's cool about it?"

"Can't say, but it just feels very mysterious."

"Cough, cough."

"Tangtang, we're competing fairly; you liking him won't stop me from liking him, you're too selfish."

"I would like him?" So Tang Xin conceded defeat, "Fine, I'll give it to you—"

After hearing her friend's question, she replied, "It's not just the Super Competitive League, the military will be there too."

Her friend's eyes sparkled with little stars: "Do you think they will pick me so I can go to the second world too?"

"Unless they're blind."

"You're so mean."

Tang Xin absentmindedly fiddled with the pen in her hand, also somewhat curious about the military and Super Competitive League's unusual actions.

She lifted her gaze, looking through the window.

There was the school's square, which resembled a small park, lush with greenery, with a modern geometric sculpture erected in the center.

Some banners were still left around the square, and one could barely make out the slogans:

"Stop the Starport project—"

"Reveal the secrets!"

"The public needs the truth!"

School had been suspended for a few days.

These were slogans left by demonstrators who had gathered in the square, and the protest, which had apparently involved the police, ended with the illegal assembly being dispersed, leaving their cardboard signs to be trampled underfoot.

Cleaners were tidying up, leaving the square in disarray.

Opposition to the Stargate project had been ongoing since the day the project commenced, driven by interest groups and ensnaring the unknowing public.

In Europe, this had led to recurrent violent incidents.

Things were slightly better in China, but what had started as fierce debates online had gradually spread to the real world. Tang Xin knew of several significant incidents recently that had caused official public sentiment to plummet drastically.

One of them involved news released by the Europe Higher Information Institute in Brussels, where a team claimed they had decrypted a code from high-dimensional information, proving that Eteliria was not unclaimed territory.

This revelation ignited public concern about the safety of the Stargate Port and led to violent clashes in several places like Frankfurt and Brussels.

The same reaction occurred domestically.

This news, linked to an incident where an entire small guild had vanished without a trace not long before, had stirred a degree of panic in society.

Although government security agencies and the Super Competitive League came forward to attest it was an isolated incident, and the disappearance of that small guild was no paranormal event but rather a suspect case of collective unlawful absconding.

The Public Security Bureau even claimed that three individuals had been arrested at customs.

Still, public opinion had yet to settle, and now the military and Super Competitive League made significant moves, leading her to find their actions slightly strange. Did it have something to do with the recent rout of the China Legion?

Where the interests of that other world indeed so important?

And then there was her obnoxious cousin who had been out of touch for quite a while; she wondered how he was faring in that world and whether he'd been caught by their dad and mom.

If it were up to him and his blockhead, he was probably caught already.

…

Fang Hong couldn't help but sneeze loudly.

Gita lifted her head to look at him, her long, dense eyelashes fluttering lightly. Beneath those enormous frames, her eyes glistened like gemstones, sparkling with a concerned light.

"Nothing." Fang Hong rubbed his nose, suspecting that he might have caught a cold. The weather on Fenris Isle was capricious, alternating between sun and rain, hot and cold, leaving one at a loss.

The other items in his room had already been moved out, and the temporary bed where Hilveld used to sleep had been dismantled, replaced by a workbench.

"The next magic-guided conductor."

"Which one?"

"Hand me the BX0700W model chainsword," Fang Hong adjusted his monocle—setting the head-mounted flaw detector to adapt to the wind element and glanced at the list as he spoke.

The Rain Listener Guild and its small guild had provided a three-page list of magic-guided conductors for repair, prioritized from highest to lowest.

On the highest page, there were six magic-guided conductors that the other party insisted he must repair before tonight.

That man had specifically asked Atira to tell him, "Please convey to the alchemist sir that this might be asking too much, but it's important, as we never know what we may encounter after nightfall."

However, Fang Hong didn't think the request was a big deal.

When he traveled with Morning Dawn Star in Tarun's Fanna Forest Basin, he would often repair magic-guided conductors overnight after the adventure group went out for combat during the day, then dive into another battle after dawn.

He was unfamiliar with the job of an alchemist in the field. In fact, field alchemists varied greatly among themselves, and mercenary craftsmen were acknowledged as the most challenging, on par with siege artisans.

Typically, an adventure group would plan thoroughly before embarking on an adventure, often avoiding unnecessary combat whether it was hunting or delving into ruins, resulting in only a handful of battles during an adventure.

But in warfare, it's unpredictable when the conflict will end. In intense battle conditions, field alchemists have heavy tasks every day. Hence, a mercenary group would bring two to three alchemists with them. It was very rare for someone like him to single-handedly uphold the entire team's magic maintenance.

Sicape felt as though she had found a treasure, and given the Elf Miss's character, she naturally wasn't just flattering him.

Fang Hong himself was oblivious, so when he casually glanced at the rates listed on that inventory, he almost couldn't help sneezing again.

Gita stopped her work once more, looking at him with confusion—she was there to help Fang Hong sort various materials and parts.

"No, nothing."

Fang Hong hastily shook his head—the rates listed on that inventory were naturally written by Atira. Repairing a BX0700W model chainsword was actually going to cost a commission of 2,000 Lycel.

The people of Rain Listener Guild must be out of their minds, right?

He remembered that when he attacked the Elf Ruins with Morning Dawn Star, Sicape had only given him 2,000 Lycel. Later, he lost that money in the underground tunnels and grieved over it for quite some time.

The market price for a BX0700W model chainsword was only around 40,000 to 50,000 Lycel. The maintenance fee almost amounted to one-twentieth of the sword's value.

"Gita."

"Hmm?"

"That price Miss Atira is asking for... isn't it a bit too high?"

"Is it?" Gita paused, "But I checked with Tianlan on the community, and this price is less than five percent above the market rate at Cloud Harbor. It's a very generous offer for being out in the wild."

"Is that so?" Fang Hong asked skeptically.

The little girl nodded assertively.

Fang Hong vaguely felt that he might have been shortchanged, but thinking about it more carefully, all he could picture was a smiling face.

"Does it include room and board?"

"Of course."

Suddenly, Fang Hong felt rather foolish.

No wonder everyone says alchemists are rich; he lived in poverty as if he were a beggar. Yet if he could turn back time, he would still choose to start over again.

Because that was where his journey began.

He zoned out for a moment before taking the chainsword from Gita.

The six magic-guided conductors that the other party wanted him to repair as a priority were the highest grade and best quality on the three pages of the list, presumably belonging to the stronger combatants in the team.

It made sense for them to want these individuals to regain their combat strength first.

But being the highest grade and best quality also meant greater repair difficulty. The level of complexity involved in fixing these pieces of equipment was beyond what an apprentice alchemist could handle.

Especially this chainsword, covered with scratch marks that reminded him of another person. The rest of the sword was not a big issue, but there was a small problem with the strength burst plugin. He quickly dismantled the plugin, connected a few structural points, and without even looking, slotted it back into place.

After testing it, there were no issues.

This was also because he now had the Dragon Knight System. If it were before, he would have had to disassemble the plugin into parts, and the time wasted then would be several times what it was now.

He flipped the sword over, only to see Gita with her mouth agape, staring at him.

It wasn't just her. Outside Fang Hong's door, there stood a young man, also gaping at him. "You-you repaired the plugin?"

The young man was one of the two apprentice alchemists sent by the Rain Listener Guild, supposedly there to assist Fang Hong but of course also there to supervise.

...

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