This is the Legendary Wonderful Tool

The joy of idling away in the chat group always made it easy to lose track of time. Chu Ke chatted and joked around in the group while running his shop, and before he knew it, an entire day had passed.

During their conversations, Chu Ke compared V's memories with reality and confirmed that he had transmigrated into a world called Dragon Raja.

In his memories, the novel had become wildly popular when Chu Ke was in middle school, practically the Chinese Hogwarts. But because he had been short on money back then, he had never bought it to read. By the time he had spare cash, he had heard that the author had fed readers crap in the third installment—the protagonist had not grown at all, still cowering whenever he should cower—so he never bought it.

Now, though, he had caught up on the plot through the Multiverse Chat Group.

It could roughly be described like this: a boy with an absurdly extraordinary background was raised into uselessness as a left-behind child fostered with "Harry Potter-style" relatives. Just as his life grew utterly bleak, "Hogwarts," known as Kassel, opened the door to a New World for him—there were creatures called "dragons" in this world, and they were the Hybrids, a species born from dragons and humans. Their mission was to kill every dragon in the world, so that humanity's glory might shine upon Earth.

Then came the familiar protagonist cheat-code segment: within the protagonist's body lived a mysterious "little devil" who claimed to be his younger brother. He could grant wishes in exchange for one-quarter of the protagonist's lifespan, and from then on, the protagonist relied on that power-up to turn the tide in critical moments.

But damn it all, a loser-kid protagonist like that should have gradually grown through hardship. Dragon Raja was different—if you wanted hardship, there was hardship; if you wanted growth, there was hardship. After all that, the protagonist was still the same loser kid. It was utterly ridiculous.

In Chu Ke's words, that was the author's malice. No wonder the writing only got worse afterward.

Although what the group members had sent him was merely this world's projection in other worlds, and was certainly different from reality, the differences could not be that great.

After learning this world's "plot," Chu Ke suddenly had an idea.

As the hands of the wall clock pointed to twelve, the lever in Chu Ke's mind was pulled down once more.

The number on the nixie tube flickered and advanced by one.

128

Along with the increase in the total amount of Fundamental Forces, Chu Ke's precision in manipulating them officially crossed from the molecular level into the atomic level.

The Fundamental Forces surrounding Chu Ke suddenly swelled outward. Countless molecules magnified within his consciousness, and at that moment, Chu Ke "saw" the nuclei made up of protons and neutrons within those substances, as well as the electrons endlessly revolving around them.

Chu Ke picked up a pencil used for bookkeeping from the table. With a thought, the pencil instantly turned into roughly ten cubic millimeters of gold.

At Chu Ke's command, the gold in his hand continually transformed into other substances, its size changing along with it. The only thing that remained unchanged was its mass.

"I can already perform Turning Stone into Gold, but I still need matter as a medium to manipulate."

Chu Ke closed his eyes. In the next instant, his body vanished, replaced by a gale that erupted from the flat ground.

A moment later, the air in the room rushed madly toward one spot, and Chu Ke's body reappeared.

Chu Ke lightly clenched his fist, feeling the body that was no different from before, then nodded in satisfaction.

Just now, he had transformed his body into gas of equal mass, then used gas of equal mass to reform his body.

"Consciousness doesn't exist inside the body. So the Fundamental Forces really are my true body?"

When he became air, Chu Ke had clearly felt his mode of "existence" change. Yet there had been no fundamental change—only the vessel had changed.

Simply put, Chu Ke was actually a "pilot" existing in the form of Fundamental Forces, while his body was merely Chu Ke's "mecha" in material form. If he wished, Chu Ke could even live as a Piece of Paper person.

Maintaining a human form was merely a habit retained from having been human across two lifetimes. It was familiar and convenient.

With a sufficient supply of Fundamental Forces secured, Chu Ke began refining his earlier idea.

There was a saying in JOJO that was actually quite right: "Stands have no distinction between strong and weak; the most suitable one is the strongest."

Chu Ke felt that the protagonist of Dragon Raja had been crippled largely by the author's malice.

So what if he gave him a different cheat code? With that thought, Chu Ke reached out and made a grasping motion in the air. As gas flowed in, an object appeared in his hand.

Chu Ke looked at the object in his palm and gave a sinister smile.

"The legendary magical gadget is mine!"

Monday afternoon, March 2, 2009. Sunny.

At this hour, the sun was neither cold and seemingly devoid of warmth like in winter, nor scorching like a steamer in summer. It felt most comfortable against the skin.

But Lu Mingfei did not see it that way. He wished Hou Yi had fired one extra arrow when he shot down the suns, just to eliminate future trouble.

The reason was simple—as a high school senior burdened with intense studies, Lu Mingfei had barely returned home after enduring Monday's classes when his aunt shouted at him to buy groceries and pick up the latest issue of Xiaoshuo Hui for his cousin, Lu Mingze.

His aunt thought Lu Mingze was smart, studious, ambitious, and especially fond of literature. In her mouth, Lu Mingze reading Xiaoshuo Hui became "our Mingze is studying." Every time a new issue of Xiaoshuo Hui came out, she felt that something new was happening in China's youth literary scene and hurried Lu Mingfei off to buy it so Lu Mingze could keep up with the times.

Normally, Xiaoshuo Hui was sold at the newsstand downstairs from their apartment, but today's issue was said to be particularly popular. It had long since been snatched up by the little brats in their second and third years of high school who got out early.

Thinking of his aunt's formidable "Lion's Roar from Hedong," Lu Mingfei shuddered. He could only hope that the Stationery Store newly opened behind his school had stocked enough and still had some left.

To avoid getting home too late and being criticized, Lu Mingfei had practically run all the way there, his shirt already soaked through with sweat.

Chu Ke raised his head and looked at the panting boy before him.

His eyebrows and eyes drooped. His hunched back and overly long bangs made his entire body exude an air of bad luck.

Mm, no doubt about it. It was you.

"Sure. Eight yuan for one. Please wait a moment." Chu Ke turned around and began searching beneath the counter.

Lu Mingfei looked at the shop owner, who was far too young, and clicked his tongue inwardly.

He looked about the same age as me. How was he already running a shop? Was his family struggling?

He had not expected his aunt's constant nagging of "you should be grateful just to have books to read" to come true in such a way today.

Perhaps because today's Xiaoshuo Hui was too popular, the remaining copies were difficult to find. Just as Lu Mingfei's thoughts had drifted to whether reporting this shop for using child labor would earn him a "Pioneer of Legal Knowledge" banner, the shop owner finally crawled back out from behind the counter.

"Here, the last copy. You're really lucky." Chu Ke smiled as he took out a beautifully packaged little box and handed it to Lu Mingfei along with the latest issue of Xiaoshuo Hui. "You're also our store's hundredth customer today, so you get an exquisite little gift!"

"Huh?" Lu Mingfei froze, staring blankly at the exquisite little box for a while before reaching out to take it.

Seriously? The word "lucky" had practically vanished from his life over the past dozen or so years, yet he had actually run into it today? Even though it was only a small gift and not some "three-day trip to Southeast Asia," Lu Mingfei was still thrilled.

If he told Chen Wenwen about this tomorrow, would she be jealous? Then he could take the opportunity to give her the gift.

Wahahaha, perfect!

That was what he thought, but Lu Mingfei did attend what counted as an elite school. The education he had received told him to be careful about this sort of thing.

In the end, holding the item, Lu Mingfei looked around to the left and right. It was not until he spotted the conspicuous security camera in the corner of the store that he relaxed. He had heard that a junior from his middle school division had won some kind of prize at a roadside stall, only to be scammed afterward. With no surveillance footage, he had no choice but to swallow the loss.

It was only after Lu Mingfei walked out of the store that he remembered to check what the prize actually was.

Opening the beautifully wrapped little box, he found a heart-shaped gemstone necklace resting quietly on its cotton lining. Sunlight struck it, refracting into a lovely pink glow. Fine golden threads encircled the gemstone in a ring, simple yet luxurious.

"Holy shit!" Lu Mingfei's brain crashed for several seconds before he realized this was not some little trinket.

This was a fucking gemstone! Lu Mingfei quickly covered his mouth. He understood that wealth should not be flaunted. Besides, if he shouted too loudly and the owner came out, realized he had given him the wrong thing, and took it back, wouldn't that be a huge loss? Still, to be fair, the owner had looked pretty young. At first, Lu Mingfei had thought he was a student working part-time, but it turned out the guy was just here to experience life! Thinking about it, Lu Mingfei let out another silly laugh.

If he gave this to Chen Wenwen as a birthday present, wouldn't it crush that pretentious asshole Zhao Menghua's gift?

The chirping of sparrows on a utility pole interrupted Lu Mingfei's fantasy. He yelled, "Holy shit!" and immediately sprinted home.

Two hours had already passed since he went out to buy things. His aunt's rage meter was probably almost full.

New book, please support it in every way! Onegai, onegai!