My slow journey to infinity

Wang Shui was awakened by the sound of metal banging. When he got up, he found that he was sleeping on the bed with his clothes on.

My body is weak and my limbs are weak, but my energy is still sufficient. It doesn't look like I have lost 1500 ml of blood.

Wang Shui worked hard to reach the garbage dump downstairs, and sure enough, it was the "Greyhound" transport robot banging on the old iron door with its mechanical arm.

The composite box at the door contained his mobile armor, and the thin wooden box contained the books he ordered. After confirming the receipt, the flat iron-gray transport robot immediately got out of the alley with extremely agility. Wang Shui just raised his hand and said, "Help me move in" before he could say a word.

Fine.

Slowly returning to the store, Wang Shui did not find his commonly used lightweight power arm. He could only find an old exoskeleton device on the old shelf. The main body of this device was a wide belt, bounded by a metal belt. , the two metal straps below are connected to the ground against Wang Shui's legs, and wrap the soles of the shoes. The two metal arms above the belt drooped down like cables.

Oh, external power source, such an ancient design.

Wang Shui pulled out a thin metal wire from the maintenance table next to him and inserted it into the side of his belt. The two metal arms immediately rose up and crossed Wang Shui's shoulders like flexible tentacles, entering the standby mode.

After trying to connect it for a few times but no response, Wang Shui discovered that this active mechanical exoskeleton was still manually operated and had no thought control interface at all. Could this be a thing from a hundred years ago?

Fortunately, the operation of technological products is relatively simple. The micro-touch buttons on the belt are very simple. Aqua regia just fumbled around and was able to operate the two mechanical tentacles very flexibly.

Even with the help of an exoskeleton, Aqua Regia is still a little weak, and the experience of excessive blood loss is too uncomfortable. This is one of the concerns that Aqua Regia has not sold blood.

Speaking of which, the priest first met Aqua Regia by chance when he brought new people to repair things, and then he was attracted by Aqua Regia's blood.

After some ignorant exchanges on science and theology, Wang Shui reluctantly understood his specialness.

Wang Shui's body is actually not rare. In this city alone, there are at least tens of thousands of [First Series Human Races] like him.

But what is very strange is that after any individual is born, he will be infected and radiated by various energies in the extraordinary world. It will not reach the level of mutation, but the energy will indeed permeate the flesh, blood and even soul of the individual. Of course, this is not harmful, it is just the process of synchronizing the individual with the world.

However, Aqua regia is different. Aqua regia's body is indeed in sync with the world, but he has not changed because he has adapted to the world. His body will grow and become older, but it will always maintain its essentially nascent state. The priest thought it was because of the soul, but Wang Shui secretly thought it was probably a matter of talent.

[Newborn Blood] on the market is a very unpopular and rare resource. It also has other names, such as umbilical cord blood or cardiac blood of newborns.

After the priest warned Wang Shui to protect his little secret, he immediately proposed the idea of ​​buying blood. However, Wang Shui was still in a nervous state as a newcomer at that time. He didn't know the priest at all. He just saw that the other party was very reasonable, so he decisively refused.

The priest didn't force it, left his contact information and left. Wang Shui was more worried about this fatal information, but he could only keep it in his heart.

Fear of having his blood drawn to death, distrust of strangers, and not knowing the value of his own blood were Wang Shui's concerns at the time.

Later, his concerns were slowly dispelled by his growing knowledge, and Wang Shui did not think about selling blood, because [Newborn Blood] was only rare and not particularly valuable.

Yesterday I thought of asking a priest to sell his blood in exchange for props, just because he was the person with the highest rank and the best reputation among Wang Shui's acquaintances.

In the end, the harvest was good, but the sequelae were a bit fatal. Wang Shui felt that he was struggling to eat now.

The mechanical tentacles that controlled the exoskeleton moved the two boxes into the house. Wang Shui inspected the goods first. The mobile armor was brand new and unactivated. This was no problem. Put it aside for now. The other big head was an alchemy note worth 10 silver coins. It was in In the wooden box in the middle of the book box.

Basically everyone recognizes the characters Wang Shui in the notes. They belong to the two modern common languages ​​​​in the safe zone - [Book Language] and [Utura Language]. In addition, there are a large number of simple geometric symbols, triangles and circles. some type of.

There are very few particularly abstract alchemical symbols, indicating that the knowledge in this notebook was formed in modern times and should not be difficult to learn. However, Wang Shui still cannot understand those strange patterns and formulas.

Fortunately, the tool for answering the question is right next to it, as well as the other books in the book box, a total of 114 volumes of alchemy introductory books.

There are many things before Wang Shui now, including learning alchemy, testing and running in mobile armor, practicing using secret cards, and the transformation work he expected.

The time is only one week, and aqua regia dare not waste it.

He directly closed the store door and went to the second floor to start learning alchemy. This was the most time-consuming thing and what Wang Shui valued most. Wang Shui hoped that he could master the ability to repair mobile armor at any time in the wild, so that safety would be improved. Improved a lot.

When taking out all the books, Wang Shui also found a paper bag. Inside the paper bag was the recommended reading order handwritten by Old Moran, as well as a brown translucent crystal card.

This card is not a secret card, it is just a data storage card, similar to a USB flash drive.

The data inside are some pictures and video materials, which are accessories of some books. This is what Wang Shui likes about "Molan Bookstore". Putting aside the price, the goods are definitely genuine.

Following Old Moran's suggestion, Wang Shui opened the first book "Alchemy's View of the Times", which is a simple history of alchemy and tells the origin of alchemy simply and straightforwardly:

There was no such thing as an alchemist at that time. In the process of understanding and exploring the world, the ancient wise men processed cheap metals in ways they didn’t even know about, and obtained an appearance and texture similar to gold. They thought they had done it. "Midstone turns stone into gold", and then passed on this part of the knowledge record.

Obviously those are just some chemical phenomena, and the knowledge gradually became distorted and even became legendary during the spread of thousands of years of ignorance. However, the word "alchemy" was still used, and later it was extended to the discipline of chemistry.

Alchemy in the modern extraordinary sense originated from people who obtained extraordinary power in the early days. They consciously explored the source of power, and through the accumulation and inheritance of knowledge, they gradually improved the extraordinary knowledge system with energy change as the core. Alchemy It is one of the products.

The core of modern alchemy is [ascending change] and [descending change]. Specific first-level definitions include "change", "creation", "dissociation", "harmony", "optimization", "deterioration", "positive and negative catalysis", etc.

According to specific categories, there are "energy alchemy", "mechanical alchemy", "drug alchemy", "biological alchemy", etc. These are not opposites, they are interconnected and influence each other and are inseparable.

Wang Shui learned from the book that modern mathematics, physics and chemistry are also the basic subjects of alchemy. They don't even know the basic properties of matter, they don't even know how to use mathematical tools, and they can't play with delicate changes.

Looking further back is the evolution history of alchemical symbols, as well as the development of alchemical spells and energy use.

The early symbols were very complex, requiring a long string to express a mystical meaning, and there were many errors, omissions and ambiguities. Modern alchemy uses simple geometric figures to abstract the concept of alchemy, uses a small amount of modern characters to construct an alchemical array, and formulates standardized terminology and a unified measurement system.

In general, modern alchemy is more specialized and the threshold is much higher, but it is more coherent and orderly for research.

Now Wang Shui has a good foundation in mathematics, physics and chemistry. What he lacks is extraordinary knowledge, especially mystical knowledge.

Aqua Regia quickly finished flipping through the thinner book at hand, and then opened the next book, "The Legacy of Hermes," which was a detailed analysis of ancient alchemy. Its next book is "The Philosopher's Stone, and the Elixir of Immortality", which explains the mistranslations of ancient alchemists' texts from earlier eras. They combined the philosophical thoughts of some wise men in ancient times to explore divinity and spirit. It has been translated into specific legendary objects, namely the so-called "Philosopher's Stone", "Philosopher's Stone", "Elixir of Life" and so on.

They were in a relatively dark age. They believed that alchemy had been cut off. They imagined that alchemy in ancient times was extremely developed, and then they imagined alchemical products with extremely exaggerated properties. They spent their lives pursuing the restoration of these things, allowing them to Alchemy has taken many detours, but it has also broadened the horizons of future generations.

Interestingly, the most high-end products of modern alchemy have really realized some of their fantasies. In order to commemorate that dark, crazy and helpless era, major academic institutions jointly established an academic award for alchemy - the [Philosopher's Stone Award].

Wang Shui is not reading these materials for fun, he is improving his understanding of alchemy. Ye Luzi's biggest worry in studying the method is to go astray and waste time. It is important to establish a correct overall view of the situation first.

Moreover, Wang Shui has discovered many things that are different from his inherent impression. For example, in Wang Shui's memory, his hometown used a set of alchemical concepts called "equivalent exchange". This is a setting in modern entertainment works. Everyone felt that it was very philosophical, so they used this concept Spread it out.

However, Aqua Regia found that most of the literature clearly stated that the alchemical process is not equivalent, and the input is always higher than the output. Of course, the high and low here do not refer to worldly values, but to the abstract algebraic sum of matter and energy.

If you want to change the form or even type of matter, if you want to change energy, if you want to blend or separate matter, you must pay additional energy or matter to control this process.

[Lowering the price] is what the alchemy here is pursuing.

Alchemy is so interesting. If there was no pressure in life, Shui Wang would even want to become a professional alchemist, just like he loved chemistry in college. This kind of creative knowledge has a strange beauty.

Learning without thinking is useless, thinking without learning is dangerous. At the same time, Wang Shui also believes that learning without action is empty.

After reading the information for a long time, Wang Shui was ready to practice some small topics and start alchemy for the first time in his life.

There is a slight problem in the first step. I have taken notes on some of the props required for alchemy, Aqua Regia, but it is really difficult to get them together at the moment unless I go out and visit the alchemy store now. Wang Shui didn't want to waste time. He first ordered a set online to be delivered tomorrow, and then planned to find some substitutes to practice first.

Soon, Shui Wang found a protective steel plate downstairs to replace the professional array board, found some [wire gel] (a cold connector similar to solder) to replace the energy-containing chalk, and then started drawing directly.

It is said that drawing standard geometric figures with freehand is the basis of alchemy. Wang Shui does not have this kind of body control now, so he chose to draw with ruler and compass.

With a few simple strokes, the basic pattern of a palm-sized concentric circle with a forward equilateral triangle was drawn. Aoi did not add any other symbols. He planned to use language instead of writing, which would be safer.

After confirming again and again that simple alchemy would not explode, Wang Shui held his hands on the edge of the protective steel plate, stared at the alloy nut placed in the center of the pattern, and guided his spirit to extend from his hands to the steel plate, while still chanting:

[Map the stars with your mind, light up the light blue crystal glow, rise and change in cycles, and shape in thinking. 】

After finishing the recitation, Aqua Regia still maintained his spiritual guidance. Finally, five seconds later, the conductor gel lit up with a light blue light, which was the light of attributeless energy.

After a long time, the alloy nut located in the center of the protective steel plate was suddenly squashed, like plasticine being squeezed by something invisible.

That is the spiritual power of aqua regia, which is the mystical energy produced by the interweaving of the attributes of "thinking" and "soul".

Wang Shui tried hard to control his concentration, and the alloy nut in the middle was quickly balled up into a metal ball. Aqua Regia originally wanted to observe more, but as the 216 points of non-attribute energy were exhausted, the connection between Aqua Regia and the simple alchemy array was quickly severed.

Feeling lost, Wang Shui felt as if he was missing two hands, and his mind was also in a trance, and his head was a little dizzy.

Looking at the formed metal ball, Aqua Regia first briefly observed the outside, then used a cutting machine to cut open the ball for observation, and finally ablated and melted it in a clay crucible.

Wang Shui pulled out an electronic note and recorded in detail the process of the first alchemy experiment, as well as the experience and product performance. This time he did not use paper to record it.

After recording, Wang Shui began to compare the information in the introductory books, and at the same time he had many questions.

Overall, the experiment went smoothly, but the experience process was very different from the description in the book, which made Wang Shui frown. He sent a text message and after receiving the reply, he immediately put on some neat casual clothes, put on a black shawl and cloak and went out.

Heading east in the night, Wang Shui's mind was not on the road at all. He was still reviewing the alchemy experiment just now in his mind.

When he stopped and raised his head, an old three-story masonry building appeared in front of him. The overall area was large, but the store front was extremely narrow. Wang Shui confirmed the sign:

【Molan Bookstore】

This is it, Wang Shui pushed open the heavy iron-clad wooden door, and the copper doorbell above made an old low whistle. The young man who was dozing on the counter at the door opened his eyes and looked at Wang Shui in a daze.

"I have an appointment with Mr. Moran, and he asked me to go directly to the small study." Wang Shui said straight to the point.

"Uh~uh-over there, just open the door inside." The clerk replied listlessly, with no intention of leading the way.

Wang Shui nodded slightly to express his thanks, then strode through the narrow aisle, squeezed in from the 'full' bookshelves and the loose books piled on the floor, and pushed open the heavy wooden door.

This is a small study room. The whole room is relatively dark. One wall has been transformed into a bookshelf, but there are not many books on it. However, the huge solid wood desk in front of the bookshelf looks quite comfortable.

Opposite the desk is a large fireplace with a small fire burning inside. Beside the fireplace are a low table and several single sofas. There is actually a night light pinned to the back of the sofa.

Moran, a little old man with a delicate gray beard, was reading a tome on the sofa closest to the fireplace. He waved to Aqua Regia who had just walked in, and then asked in a slightly hoarse voice:

"What, if you are not satisfied with that notebook, do you want to return it?"