Mage Hand Substitute

Xu Nan took one look and got angry. He immediately replied, "Kid, do you still want someone to help pay off your Huabei?"

Song Cheng replied almost instantly, "Dad, I was wrong!"

If it weren't for the strong mutual resonance between Ron Sorcerer Bloodlines, Xu Nan would have genuinely suspected that Song Cheng was one of his kind, and that he had activated some long-term quest to acknowledge a thief as his father.

Perhaps only Lü Junyi could barely compete with that bastard's complete lack of principles.

Xu Nan was fairly well liked. Many people expressed concern, while even more casually left a like.

Even Lü Junyi, who had gone to argue with Wen Xin, replied, "Brother, are you saying you won't be human for the next twelve months?"

Xu Nan sneered inwardly.

You're a damn veterinarian. When you operated on me, did you ever treat me like a human being?

He opened a private chat. "How's the hospital situation?"

Lü Junyi replied, "Not bad. That girl isn't as fierce as she was at first. I've figured out that the waters run deep here. It's impossible to completely reclaim the hospital's territory, but that dead tranny and I are trying to get a slice of the pie."

"I'm going out and about for a while. Be careful on your own. Also, keep your place hidden for as long as possible. I have a feeling some people are already getting desperate over resources."

Lü Junyi had put it rather vaguely.

But Xu Nan understood immediately. No matter the era, resources were especially important—particularly in chaotic times.

Modern people valued and were far more sensitive to resources than the beings of Pro World. Xu Nan's desire to build a dungeon also stemmed from wanting to privately set up something for himself and a few friends.

That did not conflict with joining the Thousand Rays Society.

Smart people had no need to go against the will of the state. Besides, Xu Nan felt that he was quite a passionate, patriotic young man. As long as the Thousand Rays Society did not touch his core interests, everything was negotiable.

After all, his wings had yet to fully grow.

Over the next half day, Zhang Yingluo took Xu Nan through several departments and completed a number of procedures, including refiling his identity information and undergoing a political review. Fortunately, Xu Nan's background was clean and impeccable. His only blemish was falsely reporting his class when he registered before.

But with the Thousand Rays Society about to undergo transformation, no one cared about such details. Xu Nan insisted that things had been chaotic when he inherited his class, and that even he himself had not known what class he was. No one else could say much.

It was worth mentioning that Zhang Yingluo had helped a great deal throughout the process. It was obvious that she was already a familiar face within the Thousand Rays Society. Many staff members who usually handled matters with cold expressions immediately became much more efficient when they saw that Senior Sister herself had brought someone over.

Evening.

"Alright, all your information has been filed. You basically meet the requirements for becoming an official member."

"Next, all you need to do is pass an interview with a mentor, then undergo a physical examination and attend the Training Camp for new members."

Zhang Yingluo smiled warmly, a hint of excitement in her eyes. "I still have other things to do, so I won't see you off, Junior Xu Nan. Good luck!"

Xu Nan was somewhat moved. Zhang Yingluo had accompanied him around all afternoon without asking for anything in return, and he owed her a favor for that.

He had learned a little about Senior Sister's true background from Lü Junyi. Her ancestor was connected by marriage to the Ye Family of Jiangdong, while both her parents' families wielded immense influence in H City.

He was someone with no foundation at all, yet he had stumbled into the Thousand Rays Society's tangled world. Without some backing, it would be easy for him to end up drifting with the tide.

By bringing him into the Thousand Rays Society today, Zhang Yingluo had essentially placed the Zhang Family's label on Xu Nan for the time being. Anyone wanting to test or make things difficult for him would likely have to think twice.

So Xu Nan sincerely expressed his gratitude.

Zhang Yingluo waved it off, looking very forthright. "It's nothing. I should be thanking you for helping me!"

"The people above have always refused to let me take missions. First, they used the quota of ten registered professionals to hold me back. Now they're using the method of inviting official members to hold me back again. You happened to fill the final gap. I'm going to find them now and see what else they can use to stop me!"

Xu Nan was speechless.

The Thousand Rays Society's leaders probably had quite a headache dealing with such a battle-hungry, energetic daughter of an influential family.

"If you see Lele, make sure to tell me. Her mother is probably worried sick."

After saying that, Zhang Yingluo hurried away.

Xu Nan also left the sanatorium.

On the bus.

He sent Qin Lele a private WeChat message. "What's going on with you? You went off gallivanting without even informing your family?"

Qin Lele replied quickly, "I only have one family member—my mom! She usually doesn't have time to care about me anyway."

Xu Nan felt slightly embarrassed. Qin Lele had followed him around the underground area, and he felt he bore half the responsibility of being her guardian.

"Then where are you now?" Xu Nan asked.

"I'm going to the airport to pick up my mom! She's gone crazy—she actually came back from abroad!"

Qin Lele sent an incredulous emoji.

Xu Nan thought for a moment. "Is there anything you need help with?"

The moment he sent that, he regretted it. Didn't he know the personality of his own City Management Captain? What if Qin Lele seized the opening and asked him to meet her mother?

Yet Qin Lele was uncharacteristically blunt. "No!"

That wasn't scientific.

Xu Nan was puzzled. The next second, Qin Lele replied:

"I'm spending the day shopping with my mom. I'll be back tomorrow!"

"I absolutely can't let my mom see you."

"If she sees you, I'll have no hope at all... I don't want to call you Dad!"

Xu Nan: "???"

He suddenly became very curious about what kind of woman Qin Lele's mother was!

He returned to the dungeon alone.

The base was operating well, and everything had more or less gotten on track.

With the Greater Demon Heart supporting it, many of the Cloud Ascending Ship base's buildings and functions now had the means to be activated.

His interview with the mentor arranged through the Thousand Rays Society was set for the afternoon after next. Xu Nan still had ample time and materials to deal with the matters at hand.

The first issue was the shortage of labor.

The dwarven demons' reproductive ability was actually fairly average. Their strength lay in their durability. Over the past few days, Xu Nan had sent some dwarven demons to survey mineral deposits near the base, while the Mechanical Ghosts remained responsible for the base's main manual labor.

But Mechanical Ghosts were ultimately no match for truly intelligent lifeforms. They could only carry out basic commands.

Xu Nan wanted to try growing something in the Farming Garden of the underground base. Clearly, neither dwarven demons nor Alchemy Golems were suited to that kind of work.

Xu Nan felt it was time to try a more advanced alchemical lifeform.

After all, this was not Pro World. If he wanted to solve the shortage of cheap labor, he could not simply buy slaves.

Fortunately, during his previous monthly missions, Xu Nan had practically emptied Lost Paradise's stock of first-tier alchemy blueprints. And everyone knew that Lost Paradise had copied nearly every alchemical invention of the Arcane Empire.

In other words, Xu Nan had the blueprints of virtually every first-tier alchemist in the Arcane Empire.

"Which one should I choose?"

Xu Nan looked at the huge stack of blueprints and felt a headache coming on. Learning alchemy required enormous amounts of time and energy. If he wanted to progress quickly, he could only spend Shame Points. He had quite a few points, but not enough to squander freely.

Moreover, the materials for alchemical creations were mostly expensive. Although Xu Nan had thoroughly taken advantage of Alchemy Heart, he was still far from being rich enough to rival a nation.

He had to deliberate carefully when it came to alchemical creations.

After considering many options back and forth, none satisfied him. Xu Nan finally fixed his gaze on the last pale-blue alchemy blueprint.

Basic Inflatable Puppet

Product Origin: Experimental alchemical product of the Arcane Empire; a supported product of Cube No. 694 Plan

Product Description: Inflatable Puppets could theoretically satisfy all the needs of low-level alchemists: elasticity, strength, durability, and low cost. Some alchemists even believed that Inflatable Puppets could serve as lifelong assistants and companions. Naturally, we welcomed alchemists to develop more uses for them. Generally speaking, Inflatable Puppets were reusable consumables.

Primary Function: Provide simple, inexpensive labor

Secondary Function: Mage Hand substitute

Xu Nan repeatedly examined the description and discovered that the production cost of a Basic Inflatable Puppet seemed slightly higher than that of an Alchemy Golem. However, this kind of puppet already possessed rudimentary intelligence. As long as a core module was installed, it would have intelligence equivalent to that of a six-year-old child.

The flexibility, adaptability, and greater strength of an Inflatable Puppet were things Mechanical Ghosts did not possess.

Its only drawback seemed to be that it could not fight.

That did not matter. Xu Nan's primary purpose in developing new alchemical lifeforms was to meet internal needs.

At the very least, they could try planting greenhouse crops and the like.

Thinking it, he did it. That was Xu Nan's style.

He cleared out a dedicated alchemy workshop in the base, opened the workbench, and worked through the entire night.

The next morning.

A brand-new Inflatable Puppet had taken shape. Xu Nan had chosen Model Thirteen, which looked essentially like a blonde woman.

Everything was ready. All that remained was to inflate it.