Hardcore Benchmarking

A moment later, the iron door at the entrance of the bomb shelter slowly opened with a grating sound. Standing behind it was a giant nearly two and a half meters tall. He wore a simple black shirt and had no mechanical augmentations, but his muscles bulged like balloons. A closer look revealed that his index and middle fingers on both hands wore ring-shaped Magic Guide Terminals.

This made Ivette glance a little longer, raising an eyebrow slightly.

Normal people wouldn't need four Magic Guide Terminals unless they had special needs for them, such as using them as tools to store magic spells.

Thus, the term "Cyber Mage" quickly surfaced in Ivette's mind. But unlike her, a pseudo-Cyber Mage, the person opposite her was likely the real deal, probably following Black Tower Pharmaceuticals' "Active Rune Group" path, and might have even used "Rune Elixirs" to strengthen their body.

Well, strictly speaking, they should be considered a Bio Mage or Mutant Mage...

"I am the person in charge here. My associates call me 'Welder.' Beautiful Mage, what should I call you?" Though he looked rough and fierce, the giant spoke with a refined and gentle tone, sounding like an educated person.

"Ivette Sien," Ivette replied. Since it was a dream and a fake name, she couldn't be bothered to make up another one.

"Miss Sien, I heard from my subordinates that you wish to conduct a transaction here?"

"Yes."

"In that case, please come in and let's talk."

Ivette calmly acknowledged him. Despite appearing to be a delicate girl without much strength, her composed aura made the Welder look at her with newfound respect.

On this planet, strength can be bought with money, but aura and inner substance can only be cultivated over time. This girl was neither arrogant nor proud, nor was she timid or nervous, making him question her age.

She's probably injected with the "Eternal Youth" Rune Elixir, so she might actually be forty or fifty... he thought warily.

Following the Welder into the bomb shelter, they passed through a crude underground corridor covered in bullet marks. As the sounds of commotion grew closer, the master and disciple saw the underground market.

Scorching gun barrels glowed with a blue light on the stalls, and the hum of Lightning Blades sliced through the air. Although these were all obsolete rune weapons, they were more than sufficient for ordinary people, with prices ranging from a few thousand to tens of thousands.

Furthermore, in a corner of the hall filled with vulgarities, the transaction of even more dangerous addictive substances than weapons was taking place. Rosaline glanced curiously, only to be met with dirty and covetous stares. She hastily composed herself, mimicking her teacher's nonchalance.

The Welder's "reception room" was an iron cage made of explosion-proof steel plates.

After sitting down on the sofa within the cage, he ignored the noisy surroundings and poured three cups of coffee, pushing two of them toward Ivette and Rosaline. "Did you two just arrive in the Blackwater District?"

White mist curled from the coffee cups, mixed with the bitter almond scent of some additive. Ivette subtly signaled Rosaline not to touch hers and then nodded slightly, "Yes."

"So, what transaction do you wish to make?"

"I want to purchase new, secure identity ID cards and pirated rune knowledge textbooks," Ivette said calmly. "Additionally, I hope to obtain a stall here to sell some of my original 'Restricted Spells' or accept commissions for Rune Compilation."

"Your request..."

The Welder suddenly laughed, as if he had heard something quite amusing. He picked up his coffee and took a sip. "I can get you ID cards, but pirated books?" He then licked the coffee stain from the corner of his mouth and scoffed, "Last year, a gang stole and printed introductory textbooks on rune knowledge from Black Tower Middle School to sell. Within a month, they all vanished, and no one knows where their bodies are now."

A hint of surprise flashed across Ivette's calm face. From her reading of pre-apocalypse knowledge, she knew the Origin Civilization had a very strict stance against piracy, but now it seemed... much more severe than she had imagined.

Rosaline also exclaimed in surprise, "That serious? Why?"

"Because it infringes on the company's intellectual property. That's their money-making asset, how could they not protect it properly..." The Welder spoke, then noticed Ivette's expression and narrowed his eyes. "Mage, you... you didn't know this?"

Ivette glanced at him. Her gaze was devoid of any emotion, as still as a dead pool. Yet, for some reason, the Welder felt a chill run down his spine. His suspicion about her being a Cyber Mage immediately vanished.

But what he didn't know was that Ivette was sighing inwardly.

Last night, while shopping online, she had intended to buy the patented book "Elemental Decay Completion Technology" from "Ember Trace Chemical Industry," one of the mega-corporations, to solve her energy storage issues in reality.

Then she saw the price. A single e-book cost 500,000 credit points. She was stunned and instinctively recalled her past life's experience, wondering if she could get a pirated copy.

Now she learned that the underground black market dared to trade illegal weapons, but not pirated books related to rune knowledge. This meant she would be forced to buy the legitimate version, and she had no idea how long it would take to save up the money.

"However, Miss Mage, your goods are quite rare. Perhaps I can facilitate some transactions for you. How about it? Many gangs would be interested."

The Welder changed the subject, leaning forward and grinning. "You know the commission here is 20%, but I'll only charge you 10%. Fair enough, right? After I check the goods, I'll help you make connections."

"Alright."

Eager to find opportunities to earn money quickly, Ivette wasn't too concerned about the commission. Moreover, the Welder's discount seemed genuine, as in her past life, e-commerce platforms like Taobao and JD.com charged around 10% commission for regular stores.

"What a straightforward young lady. I hope our cooperation will be pleasant," the Welder's smile deepened.

He wasn't lying about halving the commission. After all, in his opinion, a mage's connections were more valuable, especially one who could provide original Restricted Spells, suggesting a high level of skill.

Of course, the Welder was also a Cyber Mage, but his understanding of runes was only at a beginner level. It was good enough for him to cast others' spells, but creating his own spells was something he wouldn't even dare to think about. He wouldn't even dare to tweak them, fearing he might accidentally create a bug and blow himself up.

It could only be said that among mages, there were indeed differences.

Commissions for Rune Compilation wouldn't appear out of thin air. Ivette knew she needed to show some concrete proof of her abilities first.

Therefore, for her initial sale, she chose an original Restricted Spell—a term for illegal spells that were privately created without official review and registration.

The name of this spell was "Arcane Wind Blade YH47254," the same move she used yesterday to kill the three thugs. "YH" represented "Ish City Blackwater District," and "47254" was the number of runes. This naming convention could effectively avoid duplicate names.

"Arcane Wind Blade?" The Welder raised an eyebrow, looking skeptical. "Sounds ordinary. What's special about it?"

At the same time, he led the two into a room inside.

The room was slightly larger than the reception room. The plaster on the walls had peeled off, revealing dark red bricks. In the corner sat an old machine, its casing yellowed as if it had been steeped in time for a century.

However, the casing wasn't made of plastic but of "Mycelial Plastic," an organically synthesized material invented by the "Scale Shedding Organism" that developed the Magic Light Vine. Its main component was the secretion of a demon-consuming bacterium, and its function was not much different from plastic.

"Nothing special, I just made some optimizations. The performance should be quite good." Ivette's gaze fell upon the machine.

A Spell Simulator, a testing machine used to deduce the effects of magic. It's somewhat similar to a "stress test" in the magical realm, capable of maximally evaluating the performance indicators of a magic spell.

Even though she had learned about this thing's existence from professional books in the Abyss Base, this was her first time actually encountering one. It made Ivette feel like she was about to take her college entrance exams.

—She had spent hundreds of years designing runes, but this was her first time with a hardcore performance test. For a moment, she actually felt a bit nervous.

Especially for the "Arcane Wind Blade" spell, she hadn't optimized it as meticulously as the "big four" ice, fire, wind, and lightning spells like Frost Bullet, Flame Dance, Wind Control, and Wrath of Thunder. So, the test results would be a bit lower.

I'm entirely self-taught too. I haven't gone through systematic learning. I won't be penalized heavily, right? This is in front of my apprentice. Don't force me, you old machine...

She thought with a blank expression.

"Alright, Miss Sion, please inspect the machine first," the Welder reminded her.

This was a basic procedure to prevent the theft of rune sets. It was to confirm whether "Stealth Mode" was enabled. Of course, even with it enabled, tampering was possible, but the difficulty was extremely high, and it was easy to get reported for copyright infringement. Ordinary gangsters wouldn't dare take that risk.

Ivette nodded, placed her hand on the touchpad, and began a thorough check of the machine's system. After confirming everything was in order, she activated the test mode, input the rune sets, and waited for the machine to deduce the results.

"It's starting up!" Rosaline exclaimed in surprise as the machine began to shake. Then, a line of text appeared on the machine's screen—

[Testing Rune Quality…]

"Rune Quality, what's that?" Rosaline asked. She couldn't understand it, but perhaps due to the high illiteracy rate here, the Welder's machine had voice broadcasting enabled.

Before Ivette could speak, the Welder said to Rosaline with a chuckle, "It's an indicator used to check the redundancy of a spell."

"Redundancy?"

"Yes. In the rune arrangement of magical spells, there are often 'junk runes' that have no effect. They can affect the magic casting efficiency, for instance, turning a spell that should take three seconds into three-point-five seconds."

"Larger spells with more runes usually have more junk runes… Rune Quality calculation is about identifying the proportion of these junk runes and then comparing them with magic of the same specifications to arrive at a quantifiable reference."

"Why are there junk runes?" Rosaline asked, puzzled.

"There are many reasons," the Welder shrugged. "It could be residue left from repeated modifications during testing; it could be that the compiler was lazy and didn't bother optimizing; some spells even have problems if you delete the redundant parts, so they have to be kept."

"I see…"

"And the method for quantifying the score is also very simple. It calculates the redundancy rate and then ranks it horizontally among spells of similar specifications. The results are categorized: the top 5% are S-class, the top 10% are A-class, the top 20% are B-class, and so on. The worst 10% are J-class."

While the Welder was explaining, the first item, the "burn-in test," was also nearing its end.

A moment later, the test finished, and a large "S" appeared on the screen.

"Wow, this is my first time hearing an S-class announcement…"

Shocked murmurs came from behind her. Ivette glanced over and saw a few guards peeking in from the doorway, drawn by the commotion.

The Welder was also stunned for a moment.

"Rune Quality" was the performance indicator with the lowest weight in the overall score, but achieving an S-class was incredibly difficult. It meant that the compiler was either a super-genius who could complete rune compilation in one go, or a perfectionist or someone with OCD who was willing to spend the time…

Looking at Ivette's shining silver hair, clean face, and her simple, black-and-white "otaku" style attire, the Welder thought for a moment and decided the latter was more likely.