The track of dawn in the world of American manga

Chapter 50 3. Operation code name: Selling Hope

"Master Wizard, the pier of Turtle Island is already full. We can only anchor at the external anchorage and take a small boat to the island."

The sweaty bosun ran over from the dock to tell Mason the bad news. The rude one-eyed sailor cursed:

"The spread of the 'Black Death' has really occurred over in Haiti. It is said that the main island has been completely occupied by damn ghouls. Fortunately, you were clever and didn't let us go there, otherwise it would be over."

"Then let's go there by boat. Do you still need to trouble me with this?"

Mason now occupies the most "luxurious" place on the pier, a two-story rickety bamboo building, as a temporary alchemy laboratory. He is preparing to learn enchanting skills from Zha Kang.

Where do you have time to take care of these little things?

"No, Lord Wizard."

Seeing the wizard conjuring up some weirdly colored "evil materials", the superstitious boatswain became even more nervous. He whispered:

"Those bastards want us to pay! It costs 2 gold crowns to rent a boat. That's crazy! I can buy enough rum for 2 gold crowns to drown them.

You are the hero who saved this island!

They can’t humiliate and extort you with this price!”

"Then give it to them."

Mason glanced at it and said:

"In this doomsday situation, is money still useful? Can it buy life?"

The young man's cold and direct answer left the money-grubbing old sailor speechless, and he could only turn around and contact the group of vampires who deserved to go to hell.

Mason really doesn't care about the currency of this world, it's just a "mission prop" anyway.

"Look, I can really only do this once.

The rainstorm magic just now almost drained my magic power. I hate this kind of low magic world. I really don’t know how this ghost place was rated as a C-level world?

In my opinion, this is no different from a D-class world with no supernatural powers at all."

On the second floor of the bamboo building, Zha Kang complained while repeatedly rubbing the peppermint in his hand with his fingers, as if giving a massage to the herb.

But there is a weak magic power seeping into it, making the originally light peppermint exude a stronger aroma.

A few seconds later, Zha Kang handed the herb in his hand to Mason. The young man took it in his hand and saw its changes:

Enchanted Peppermint (Expiration Countdown: Fifteen Minutes)

Quality: Temporary enchanting material, which can be used to make high-level alchemical creations.

Item description: What is the best material that only needs the simplest processing? You just use it without processing it? Are you an alchemist born as a barbarian?

Tip: When you come into contact with enchanted items, the enchantment branch skills are activated, currently Lv0.

"Very useful knowledge indeed, John."

Mason looked at the temporarily enchanted herbs in front of him, and he was happy that he had learned another little trick that could quickly improve his alchemy and enchantment.

But then he shook his head and said:

"But before I continue to study, I have to make the alchemy stone first. Now I have to ask you to go out, John, and you can't be disturbed while making the alchemy stone."

"Because the mysterious inheritance cannot be seen by me?"

Zha Kang had never heard of an "alchemy stone". He put his arm around Mason's shoulders and said:

"We are already teammates, you can't hide it like this. Let me see, maybe I can use this secret knowledge to get Xiao Zha back into my arms."

"The reason I let you out is because this thing will explode violently if it is made incorrectly. I don't want the new teammates I tricked to be killed by my mistake on the first day."

Mason rolled his eyes and drove Zha Kang out.

He returned to the table and took out several magic ores he had just found in the dock warehouse. He had never tried to make an alchemy stone before because of the lack of these magic-rich stones as basic materials.

The recipe for making alchemy stones has been unlocked at Alchemy Level 2.

Mason did not lie. Although the finished product has very stable properties, it is really easy to explode out of control during the production process.

The reason is probably because this little thing has the magical effect of "changing the properties of objects".

To put it simply, when you hold a fine alchemy stone, you can really turn a stone into gold, but the cost of "turning stone into gold" is that you will lose your own alchemy stone.

No one would do this thing of losing the watermelon and picking up the sesame seeds.

Mason put several small stones with different effects into the crucible, then poured in the prepared special solution and lit the crucible with magic fire. He took a deep breath and stared at the changes in the stones in the crucible.

At this moment, he felt that his time had "slowed down", his senses were intensifying, and any changes in the small crucible could be detected by him immediately.

The [Swift Eyes and Quick Hands] talent effect unlocked by Alchemy Level 2 is activated, similar to bullet time. Unfortunately, it can only be effective when making items and cannot be used in combat.

But it is indeed a magical skill.

With the blessing of "super senses", Mason's error tolerance rate has been greatly improved in every production.

After nearly losing control three times and making seven quick adjustments, which seemed extremely difficult for ten minutes, Mason wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked at the irregular gray stone in the crucible.

He used tweezers to place the stone still emitting high temperature in front of his eyes.

Elementary Alchemy Stone

Quality: Excellent alchemical items·Excellent craftsmanship

Usage: Add it when making potions to improve the quality of the finished product, or add it to already made alchemical compounds to make them enter the [extraction] state to improve the effect. It can also be used as a magic agent when making other branch creations.

The above behaviors will cause the alchemy stone to be lost. The number of times it can be used currently is [10/10]

Item description: Hang it proudly on your chest as an alchemist's medal. Of course, you can also light it and throw it out as a bomb when you are in danger. Believe me, this thing is much easier to use than ordinary alchemy bombs.

"Plop"

Mason threw the gray alchemy stone into the healing potion he had made previously.

As it sinks to the bottom of the potion, small bubbles begin to appear like sparkling water.

This extraction process requires several minutes of rest. Mason took advantage of this time to take out the rare metal he had just obtained by smelting the magic ore with magic fire, and took out an exquisite bullet mold.

His fingers jumped out of the magic fire to melt a small ball of rare metal and filled it into the mold. After it cooled, Mason got twelve bullet heads.

When this thing was taken out with tweezers, the surface was still shining with faint khaki light spots. Although it was just the simplest solid pointed bullet, there was no doubt that it still belonged to the "voluptuous bitch" type of bullet with all the bells and whistles.

The young man admired his creation and put the delicate bullet in front of his eyes to inspect:

Engineering Bullets·Petrochemicals

Quality: Excellent items·Standard workmanship

Effect: The warhead shaped from earth element metal still possesses the magic power of the earth. When it hits the target, it will cause petrification for 1-600 seconds. The duration depends on the target's magic resistance.

This bullet can be further modified to increase its destructive power and effect.

Item description: Gaia! Give me the power of this righteous sneak attack bullet!

Tip: When you have an engineering modified bullet production line, you can produce engineering bullets on a large scale, and the mechanical modification drawings have been unlocked.

"If it were made by hand, the bullets I would spend a day making would probably only be enough for me to pull the trigger for thirty seconds. Or would I need specialized equipment? Maybe this is the true meaning of engineering."

Mason looked at the delicate warhead in front of him and suddenly felt that this thing was not good.

He thought about it and felt that he should be able to find professional bullet assembly line production equipment in the arsenal in the world of Hogwarts.

At this time, the extracted potion has been completed. Mason took out the alchemy stone, and the number of uses became [9/10]. The extracted healing potion was reduced from two mouthfuls to less than one mouthful.

However, the effect has been increased from being able to treat only minor injuries to being able to treat moderate injuries, and the effective time has also been reduced from five minutes to two minutes.

The effect is gratifying.

However, it is obviously not cost-effective to use an alchemy stone that is significantly more expensive to produce to extract such low-level potions. The real use of this cute little gray stone is to transform high-level potions.

Mason smiled, rubbed his eyes, stood up and opened the door. He happened to see three of his team members greeting the dawn outside the door while drinking and chatting.

"How many people are there on this island?"

Catwoman wore goggles with telescope and night vision functions and looked at the increasingly lively island behind her. She took a sip of the weird-tasting rum, frowned and said:

"The population density here is crazier than the most chaotic slums in Gotham, and they are all wooden buildings. No wonder a fire can turn this place into a hell."

"This place is already hell!"

Next to Catwoman, Zha Kang pinched his nose and complained:

"Can't you smell it? The putrid smell of death is overwhelming. I can feel that as we speak, at least ten people have died on the island.

Well, just in the last 10 seconds."

Mason said nothing.

He walked up to the Kite Man and handed him the newly extracted healing potion, asking him to treat the injuries he had suffered when he fell.

"Dismiss the people on board."

Mason refused the rum offered by Zaccon. He looked at the bewildered crew members on the dock not far away, and gave an order to the one-eyed, superstitious and stingy boatswain standing in front of him:

"But we don't want money! We just want all kinds of rare things, whether they are magical minerals, leathers, herbs, or strange items with unique effects."

"Jewelry!"

The slightly drunk Catwoman suddenly said:

"I want beautiful, expensive and rare jewelry too!"

"What do you want those things for?"

Mason glanced at his eldest sister.

Ms. Selena obviously had no intention of giving up her hobby of collecting jewelry. In order to take care of the emotions of her new team members, the young man also pinched his nose and added the jewelry to the exchange catalog.

"Actually, she is a beautiful and helpless girl."

Zha Kang came over and opened his mouth when he saw a flash of cold light and a sharp sword pressed against his waist, causing the black magician to raise his hands and stop speaking out his dark thoughts.

The boatswain found a group of men and quickly packed up the food and set off.

But their work efficiency was remarkable and they also allowed Team K to see how cheap human life can be in a world that is approaching doomsday.

A group of ragged young women soon came to the door and said they would do anything as long as they had food. There were even children under the age of ten among them.

Seeing this scene, Kite Man sighed repeatedly. Men with children would not see this. Catwoman, who had always been lazy, also fell silent in her drunken state.

She turned to look at Mason.

The young man was exchanging knowledge of enchantment with Zha Kang and noticed Catwoman's silent gaze. After a second of silence, he waved his hands to let the two of them decide on their own.

Watching Catwoman and Kite Man taking out food from their bags and distributing it, Zha Kang, who was holding a pipe and a wine bottle next to Mason, blew out smoke rings and drunkenly said to the young man:

"You know, Selena is actually not a good team member. I know what happened to her in the past. Now it seems that the annoying Batboy has really successfully 'trained' her. Her kindness will be given to her in this apocalypse.

and cause trouble for us.

Your little brother Charles is actually not a qualified explorer.

Indecisive and lacking courage and strength.

Although saying this may sound cold-blooded on my part, Mason, if the world we go to in the future is mostly like this, the two of them obviously need to change their ideas.

But you’re pretty good.”

The black magician took a sip of wine, stared at Mason, and said:

"I saw the way you looked at these people like you were looking at a group of 'consumables,' and I knew you wouldn't hesitate to shoot them when you needed to.

But I also believe that the person Batman is willing to give up the principle of walking alone to save is obviously not a bastard who doesn't take human life seriously. So, Mason, did you become cold-blooded after joining the Stars and being cursed?"

Mason took out Old K's alchemy notes and started reading them. He seemed to have no interest in Zha Kang's question about seeing ghosts, but the dark wizard kept asking Mason endlessly.

He frowned and said to Zha Kang:

"I don't know how the other captains of the Stars Club select their members, John, but I think my team members have done a good job so far.

Even you."

"I think you're humiliating me, Mason."

Zha Kang snorted in displeasure and asked after a few seconds:

"Then can you tell me what your code of conduct is? Considering that we are going to cooperate for a long time in the future, I don't want to offend you because of some trivial things and let you throw me into any damn world.

I mean, bottom line.

Just like the annoying Batboy’s ‘no-kill principle’, you should also have this thing, right?”

"Yes! And it's very simple."

Mason looked at Zha Kang, he thought for a moment and said:

"If I'm pushed to the point of betraying my morals, that means I'm at the end of my rope or there's a huge profit to be made. But look at those people, John."

The young man pointed down at the poor women and children surrounding Catwoman and Kite Man, begging for food. He shook his head and said:

"Please tell me, what can I gain by abandoning morality for these people? Why shouldn't we be good people if there is no profit to be made?

Wouldn't doing something nice make you feel bad?"

"Ha, it seems that our concepts are very different."

Constantine blew out a smoke ring, covered his expression with magic smoke, and said:

"I didn't expect my captain to be a kind-hearted saint. God, I'm becoming more and more pessimistic about the future of Team K."

Mason lowered his head to look at the alchemy notes again.

He didn't care about Zha Kang's eccentric temperament, because he knew that this guy who didn't slip away and acted without a bottom line was definitely not a good person deep down.

But he can't be considered a bad guy in the traditional sense.

"That's a good thing, John."

The captain of Team K decided to end this unpleasant conversation of testing each other. He said:

"Me being a good person means that when I have to pay a price to get something, you at least don't have to worry about being the 'price'."

This sentence made Zha Kang silent for ten seconds. He took a deep breath of smoke and said:

"MD, what you said makes sense, and I can't refute it. But I still feel that if our team wants to go further, there must be at least one person who is as pessimistic and vigilant about everything as Batboy and takes action.

A guy as ruthless as Green Arrow.

Only in this way can we turn the tide at the critical moment.”

Mason raised his head with strange eyes, glanced at Constantine, and said:

"Don't worry, John. We already have one of those bastards, and he's sitting right in front of me talking. I think when we need to do something ruthless, you won't let us down.

Don't show that nasty smile, asshole.

I'm not complimenting you!

By the way, regarding the issue we just discussed, how to tap into the wealth of this world more effectively, I suddenly had an idea."

Mason closed the book and said to Zha Kang:

"I suddenly feel that we may need to modify the goal of this operation. In addition to the original plan to find the resources we need, Team K may be able to do a few more things.

I have a plan!

John, do you know what will be the most expensive thing in an apocalyptic world?"

"future?"

The drunken Zha Kang curled his lips and said:

"Or is it some vain thing like hope?"

"Yes, that's hope!"

Mason looked at the ragged women and children downstairs, his eyes flashed and he whispered:

"I have a new idea. Instead of working hard to collect every coin, let's play something big and use some method to make them willingly give us the most precious thing in their hands.

I mean, let's sell hope."

(End of chapter)