Continuous Sealing Paste Technology

In this otherworld he had transmigrated into, Duke did not know exactly what to call it.

In his predecessor's memories, the Seven Towers Federation marked the boundary of his knowledge. He knew nothing of what the Seven Towers Federation represented, how large it was, or what kind of political system it had.

He only knew that he lived in Snakehead Town, beneath Chen Jiao City.

This was also territory belonging to the Black Snake Family. Most of the town's industries belonged to the Black Snake Family, despite its small population. It was rare to see anyone of its direct bloodline.

But he knew one thing: this world possessed extraordinary power.

If an ordinary person opened one of the three seas—the Qi Sea, Blood Sea, or Spirit Sea—they could cultivate these extraordinary powers and become part of the powerful class that stood above ordinary people.

"The Qi Sea and Blood Sea have already failed to open, and there won't be a second chance. So the only hope I can place my faith in is this boundless sea of stars!"

Within his dream, Duke wandered freely.

His eyes held only those two dazzling masses of light: one shaped like a phone, the other like a handgun.

"Right before I transmigrated, I was playing with guns at the Falcon Club. I had just answered a client's call when an explosion occurred outside... The specific circumstances are impossible to know now, but without a doubt, my phone and handgun came across with me. They're hanging in my Spirit Sea, waiting for me to open it." His gaze fixed on the scene before him.

The phone-shaped mass of light consisted of complicated, densely packed circuits of radiance. The circuits twisted and wound in an apparently orderly fashion, with not a single one intersecting another.

No matter how many times he stared at them, they remained independent and extended infinitely.

As for the other mass of light, shaped like a handgun, it consisted of a single simple circuit of radiance. It looked as though a circle had been kneaded into a lump, then stretched into the shape of a handgun.

"These circuits of radiance are energy circuits formed from spirituality. This is a—Ring!"

Within the Spiritual Arcana system, a Ring was the core key of spirituality, much like DNA. Only a complete Ring could display extraordinary and inconceivable power.

A closed energy circuit was a First Ring.

"This handgun is a First Ring. As for the phone, its circuits of radiance are far too complicated. I can't tell how many closed circuits there are inside. In any case, it should have many Rings."

Duke tried reaching out to touch them.

But the multi-Ring phone and First-Ring Handgun showed no reaction. He had exhausted every method in his dream the previous night, yet he could not move them in the slightest. "So I can only obtain my golden finger after opening my Spirit Sea!"

"Cock-a-doodle-doo!"

The rooster kept by the neighboring household began crowing before dawn, waking Duke along with his biological clock. He hurriedly made and ate breakfast, then rushed to work.

Being an apprentice at a Card Repair Shop was currently his only source of income.

Until he found another source of income, he could not throw away the job he relied on to survive.

"Before transmigrating, I was at least the owner of a small factory. Who would've thought that after transmigrating, I'd end up working nine to nine, six days a week..." After sighing at the hardships of the world, Duke seriously began wiping down the machines.

Nine fifteen.

The Card Master Best arrived at Little Sam's Card Shop right on schedule, as usual.

"Coffee, Little Duke!"

"Coming."

"Watch carefully and learn!" Best was in a good mood after finishing his coffee. Instead of finding an excuse to chew Duke out, he called Duke over to learn the card-repair trade from him.

As a formal Card Master who had opened his Spirit Sea, Best was not afraid of Duke learning the core techniques.

After all, the core techniques of card repair required the support of a Spirit Sea.

"Turn on the sealing machine and preheat it. In a moment, you'll seal a protective coating over this Spirit Card." Best quickly repaired a Spirit Card that was not seriously damaged, then gestured for Duke to coat it with a protective layer.

Spirit Cards were precision objects and had to be protected with a coating.

"All right, Teacher."

Duke skillfully turned on and preheated the machine, then took the Spirit Card and placed it inside.

The coating nozzle buzzed as it sprayed several streams of hot air. Immediately afterward came the transparent coating, which sprayed evenly over the surface of the Spirit Card like glue.

Evenly coating both sides took five minutes.

Duke operated the machine with boredom, his thoughts drifting toward ways to make money. Before he knew it, his hand slipped. The Spirit Card tilted, and the coating it sprayed became uneven and lumpy.

The coating solidified the instant it met the air. There was no way to smooth it out.

"Ah!" Duke hurriedly stopped the sealing machine.

Best turned his head and saw what had happened. He immediately flew into a rage and cursed loudly. "Useless! You can't even coat a card without ruining it. What a useless piece of trash! All you do is waste my coating! Get out of here. You're not fit to learn card repair!"

He took the Spirit Card over with a pained expression, peeled off the ruined coating, and personally applied a new one.

In truth, the coating itself was not expensive. But it could not come into contact with air and had to be sealed inside special containers. Those containers were all disposable products, and they were costly.

Every month, Best could save on sealing jobs and pocket several coating containers from the shop. After accumulating them bit by bit, he could make an extra two or three Silver Dragons each month.

After Duke had wasted one, Best naturally had to curse him out.

Duke put on the timid, obsequious demeanor expected of an apprentice, but beneath his lowered head, his eyes suddenly lit up. He had thought of a way to make money.

In Duke's eyes, the sealing machine was equivalent to a printer.

Although their functions were different, they were strikingly similar when it came to supplying ink and coating. Printers supplied ink through ink cartridges, while sealing machines supplied coating through coating containers.

Some ink cartridges were disposable, while others could be reused. There were even continuous ink-supply systems.

But sealing machines only had disposable coating containers. After use, air would get into the container, making it impossible to refill it with coating. It could only be discarded.

"If I design a continuous coating supply system for the sealing machine, wouldn't I make a fortune?"

The technical difficulty of a continuous coating supply system was not great. It was merely an idea no one else had discovered. Duke happened to understand printers, and this inspiration had come to him through reference to them.

"If I really start building one, my current circumstances may not be enough to make a continuous coating supply system. But the technical principles are simple and clear. I should be able to sell it for quite a lot of money!"

"Then who should I sell it to?"

From his predecessor's memories, he recalled that the Seven Towers Federation placed great importance on patent rights. It also valued converting Spiritual Arcana technology from the extraordinary domain into applications for society.

"Apparently, I have to go to the Tower of Erudition in the city to register a patent."

The Spiritual Arcana system was vast and profound, and there were many types of Arcana Mages.

Among them was a type of Arcana Mage known as an Erudite, who specialized in developing various social applications of Spiritual Arcana. Products such as Spirit Meal Pots and sealing machines had all been invented by Erudites.

Likewise.

The Tower of Erudition established by the Erudites was responsible for managing all patents in the Seven Towers Federation, with standards even stricter than those on Earth.

"But now there's a problem."

Duke rubbed his chin with one hand. His chin was smooth and had not yet grown any stubble. "I'm an ordinary person, and I'm only fifteen. Can I successfully apply for a patent on the Continuous Sealing Paste Technology?"

His predecessor had lived in Snakehead Town all his life and had never been to Chen Jiao City.

His understanding of the Seven Towers Federation had mostly come from vague accounts he had heard from others. He had no way of knowing how the real Seven Towers Federation operated or what its social customs were like.

"Even in Snakehead Town, almost all the industries are monopolized by the Black Snake Family. Ordinary people have no chance to get involved... The strong prey on the weak—that is the unchanging law of the ages."

"If I rashly go to Chen Jiao City, I'm afraid I won't even be able to enter the Tower of Erudition."

"If I ask a scalper for help, will he swallow my patent?"

Applying for a patent would certainly solve the problem once and for all, but while the benefits were enormous, so were the risks. Especially in this extraordinary world, an ordinary person facing possible ill intent could be said to have no ability to resist whatsoever.

"I have to be steady!"

After turning the matter over in his mind, he decided to abandon the patent route. "All I need right now is twenty-three Silver Dragons in start-up capital. I can give up all the other benefits."

Once he had figured it out, his whole body relaxed.

"In that case, I'll go find Old Sam."