Cell Enhancer (Bonus Chapter)

(This morning while shaving, I accidentally cut a gash on my face. I joked on Weibo that seeing blood early meant I was bound to get popular. I never expected that during my evening jog, my old friend 'She Smiles When Beautiful' would tip ten thousand Qidian coins. Also thanks to the beauty 'Yiqiao Qingyu', my second-group comrade 'Urban Commoner', 'Carefree Wanderer 1', 'Drunk Xiaoxi', old friend 'Frost... Tear Stain', Weibo friend 'Feng Zhi Xiluo Xuan', and friend 'Change to a Big Balloon' for their tips. Mm, and I want to thank everyone who clicked, recommended, bookmarked this book, and all the brothers and sisters who left supportive comments in the review section. With you all here, Warhead is very happy~~)

Gu Ding counted three times carefully. The amount in his account was seven digits.

"Over three million, did you steal it?" Gu Ding finally reacted after a long pause.

"Just used a little trick, how could it be considered stealing?" Sea Emperor's voice carried a hint of disdain. "Remember that woman who faked her death yesterday? When she did, I took the opportunity to take over not just her Storage Space, but also her various accounts, including financial ones."

"Heh, three million is enough to buy a Young Eagle." Gu Ding immediately thought of the small interstellar spacecraft he had always dreamed of.

"Hey, this money isn't for you to squander. Buying Gene Serums requires a lot of materials; a few million won't last long. If you want to earn more, become an apothecary!" Sea Emperor's voice came again. "This is the F-Grade Cell Enhancer crafting tutorial and formula. Take a good look. Buy twenty sets of the formula's materials; beginners have a high failure rate. Your school has a mixing room, and the rental fee is more than half the price outside. This kind of serum can be made with basic equipment. The rest is just buying materials."

As Sea Emperor spoke, he transmitted a file into Gu Ding's mind. This method of directly storing data in the brain's memory area was something a Smart Watch couldn't do.

The human brain was an extremely precise instrument. Even at this stage of human development, its mysteries were not fully understood. Directly transferring data into the memory area had been attempted before. The initial results were good, but all participants died within ten years after the experiment ended, without exception, all from mutational brain cancer. The cancer cells appeared without warning, developed to the Fourth Order in just a day or two, and then the tumors burst.

"Hey, won't this kind of storage cause problems?" Having heard various rumors, Gu Ding was a bit worried.

Sensing Gu Ding's concern, Sea Emperor explained, "Don't worry. The information database has very detailed data on the brain. My direct storage operation won't cause issues. In fact, as long as this kind of storage isn't done too frequently, or if it's not an ultra-large data transfer at once, my method is very safe. The main point is, once a Super Intelligence recognizes a master, the chance of changing masters is almost zero. You should know that saying. Statistically, the probability of me killing you is nearly a million times lower than your chance of successfully committing suicide."

Gu Ding shook his head helplessly, speechless at Sea Emperor's absurd comparison. But he had also heard that Heaven once had a master, and after her master died, she didn't attach herself to another human for millions of years. The loyalty of a Super Intelligence was beyond doubt.

Gu Ding flipped through the formula. The unit prices of materials were almost transparent. He calculated that with his previous savings, his entire wealth would only buy two sets of materials.

"An apothecary is indeed a money-burning profession..." Gu Ding couldn't help sighing, then began watching the tutorial.

The tutorials were all holographic 3D videos, looking exactly like being at the production site. Every step was explained in extreme detail, including some mixing techniques and precautions, with nothing omitted.

Gu Ding watched twelve tutorials on making Cell Enhancers consecutively. For the same serum, different apothecaries had similar methods, each with their own characteristics. After watching the tutorials, Gu Ding was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Sea Emperor, do you have materials on pharmacological basics and mixing techniques?"

"I guessed you'd ask, so I prepared them long ago." Moments later, Sea Emperor injected these materials into Gu Ding's memory area.

In his mind, Gu Ding turned page by page through the pharmacological basics, reading very carefully. After confirming nothing was missed, he closed it and started on the mixing techniques.

When he finished, he happened to arrive at the school's experimental building entrance.

"Hello, I'd like to rent a private mixing room." Gu Ding found the building manager.

The manager glanced at Gu Ding, a hint of disdain in his expression. "All three private mixing rooms are rented today. If you want to use one, go to the public area; it's free there. For serum materials, buy them at the second-floor pharmacy warehouse."

Gu Ding didn't pay much attention to the man's attitude. He just frowned slightly at the news that the private rooms were occupied, then headed to the second floor.

"Tiger Gall Grass, Crow Tongue Flower, Red Python Bone Marrow... I need twenty sets of these materials."

"Twenty sets? One set costs 112 Star Coins total. Are you sure you want twenty?" The warehouse manager was a bit surprised. If a teacher bought this much, he could understand, but a student's financial strength probably couldn't handle it.

"Yes, twenty sets!" Gu Ding nodded.

Only after the warehouse manager prepared the twenty sets and Gu Ding transferred the payment did the manager believe Gu Ding wasn't joking.

Carrying the serums, Gu Ding went to the public mixing hall on the third floor.

The hall was empty, with thirty workstations all cleaned spotlessly.

Gu Ding picked one at random, took out a set of materials, and arranged them on the workstation in order.

The basic steps for mixing serums were extraction, distillation, proportioning, and fusion.

Extraction meant separating the parts of the material that needed processing from the raw material and doing preliminary work to extract the liquid essence. Distillation aimed to remove impurities from the material and release the medicinal properties through heating. The completeness of extraction and distillation affected the final serum's quality. The third step, proportioning, involved matching the processed materials based on their medicinal properties. A mistake here made it highly likely to produce waste. The final step, fusion, varied in difficulty. For simple serums, if the previous steps were done well, fusion was very easy. But some serums required special techniques to complete fusion. The degree of fusion also affected the final serum's quality.

Gu Ding carefully processed each material, smoothly completing the extraction exactly as taught in the tutorial, even keeping the timing precise to the second. By then, the Distillation Flask was heated. He placed the liquid essences into different flasks. This step had no exact time; it depended on color changes in the flask. Even for the same material, distillation time varied based on extraction degree and quantity. Gu Ding didn't dare relax, staring intently at the flasks. After just a few minutes, one flask began to change color. Gu Ding quickly removed it, but almost simultaneously, three other flasks also started changing.

"Damn!" Gu Ding grabbed two flasks in each hand, but the remaining one's original color vanished in an instant. By the time he took it, the original sky blue had turned deep blue. "This one's over-distilled, causing some medicinal properties to evaporate... but it's still usable."

After distillation, Gu Ding began proportioning. Compared to the others, he found this step the easiest, since he had the optimal medicinal ratios from the tutorial and just needed to follow them. After finishing, he poured each tube into the final fusion cup in the order and time intervals taught.

Normally, making a Cell Enhancer only required letting it sit to fuse. But in the twelve methods Gu Ding saw, all twelve apothecaries used their own techniques to speed up fusion. Gu Ding picked up the fusion cup and started the simplest method—clockwise shaking. After three rotations, he switched to counterclockwise. He repeated this, watching as the colorful solution gradually turned a faint milky white. After about three minutes, the cup of Cell Enhancer finally became completely milky white. If left to sit, it would have taken at least an hour to fuse.

"Heh, successfully made my first tube of Cell Enhancer." Gu Ding was a bit excited. "Sea Emperor, even with a small mistake, judging by the color, it should at least be Good quality, right?"

"Didn't expect you to have some talent. This bottle of F-Grade Cell Enhancer is Ultimate Quality." Sea Emperor recognized the tube's quality at a glance.

Even serums of the same grade had quality levels, from low to high: Inferior, Poor, Passable, Good, High-Quality, Ultimate, and Perfect.

A Passable product had standard effects. One bottle of F-Grade Passable Cell Enhancer could raise a First Level Gene Body's Cell Comprehensive Index by 2 points. Good raised it by 3, High-Quality by 4, and Ultimate by 5. Perfect could raise it by 7 points.

So prices for the same Cell Enhancer varied. Generally, Passable was the standard price. Good had about a two-fold premium, High-Quality at least five-fold. Ultimate was extremely rare, with a premium of at least eight to ten times. Perfect had a minimum premium of over twenty times.

The market price for one bottle of F-Grade Passable Cell Enhancer was 10 Star Coins, but the tube in Gu Ding's hand could sell for at least 10,000 Star Coins.

Gu Ding packed the serum and stored it in his Storage Space, then started on his second tube. But he didn't notice a camera in the corner of the public mixing hall's ceiling...

(Here's a supplement: Smile asked me why the book's contract status hasn't changed. I didn't think it was a big deal, so I didn't mention it. Before publishing, I discussed with the editor that the contract would be signed at 20,000 words, so it'll be officially signed tomorrow when we hit that mark. After the contract is mailed to Qidian's editorial department, it'll probably be at least next Monday. Qidian's internal process will take another day or two, so the contract status will definitely change next week.)