It Backfired!

After studying for the past two days, she felt that making bullets with alchemy was actually very simple.

Albert had once said that the three most fundamental steps in alchemy, the ones that never changed no matter what, were "understanding," "decomposition," and "reconstruction."

"Understanding" could be thought of as learning: grasping how things were related and how the materials in your hands should be used.

"Decomposition" was even simpler. Whether you boiled herbs in a cauldron over a big fire or ground dried snakes, insects, rats, and ants with a mortar, it was all a process of decomposition, mainly meant to release the Magic Power or medicinal properties inside that you needed.

"Reconstruction" was the finished potion.

Lan Qingyou tried drawing an Alchemical Array, then placed a piece of Iron Ore on it and used the array to "decompose" it into fragments. After that, she recombined the iron molecules in the fragments to form a block of pure iron.

It sounded simple, but the process was not easy.

Lan Qingyou was already sweating, both hands pressed against the radiant Alchemical Array.

Only she could tell what was happening inside, through the feedback from her Magic Power.

A few minutes later, the array's light faded, and a smile appeared on Lan Qingyou's face.

At that moment, two piles of things sat inside the Alchemical Array.

One was a ring of gray ash around the outer edge. Inside the small circle carved in the center of the array was a silvery-white object about the size of a thumb.

Lan Qingyou picked it up and examined it with her Appraisal Glasses. Only then did she smile.

Iron with 90% purity was already usable.

That meant the Alchemical Array she had drawn worked.

So, after sweeping away the rubble from the broken stone slabs on the ground, she took out the Lead Ore, Copper Ore, and other ores Shang Chuan had given her and began refining them in batches.

Once the refining was done, all that remained was shaping the casings and bullets.

Since her craftsmanship didn't meet the same standards, the casings she made were much thicker than the samples she'd gotten from Shang Chuan, leaving far less room inside for gunpowder.

But that was fine. Lan Qingyou had expected as much.

Only after everything else was done did she start researching gunpowder.

To be honest, Lan Qingyou knew nothing about the stuff, and had barely even learned about it.

She had already explained the steps of alchemy.

Without understanding something, making gunpowder or primer was simply impossible.

But that was fine. Lan Qingyou had already prepared a backup plan.

First, she marked each casing with a number in ink, then took out her Burst Potion.

One drop, two drops, three drops...

Carefully, she dripped different amounts of Burst Potion into casings with different numbers, then placed them on the Alchemical Array to fuse each casing with a bullet.

Burst Potion exploded when subjected to violent shaking or impact.

That was exactly the same as gunpowder burning and exploding to propel a bullet.

That was why Lan Qingyou thought it had real potential.

[Burst Bullet (E-)]

[Effect: Has a certain chance of causing a small explosion after hitting an enemy.]

[Description: A 7.62 mm bullet with more bang for your buck. Taking out your enemy with one should feel pretty satisfying.]

Were the Appraisal Glasses acting up?

Lan Qingyou froze when she saw the description, then remembered the Burst Potion inside the bullet casings.

Maybe it was because of that stuff?

Still, the fact that this otherworld knew about 7.62 mm bullets made Lan Qingyou smile.

The World Will of Karim's world sure knew a lot. It seemed to have spent plenty of time communicating with the World Will of Blue Star.

Whatever. She'd make a few more and see how they worked.

Lan Qingyou then made ten bullets, each with a larger amount of powder than the last.

Once all ten bullets were ready, she sent them to Shang Chuan.

Lan Qingyou: "Each bullet is marked. Try them out and see which one works best, then let me know."

Shang Chuan: "No problem."

As soon as Shang Chuan received the bullets, he sent them to Ailuaier to test-fire.

Meanwhile, Lan Qingyou took out a good amount of Iron Ore and refined it into iron plates.

Now she wanted to see if she could turn the iron plates into Alchemical Array Bases.

That way, she wouldn't need to find Li Huai to make stone slabs anymore, nor would she have to sweep up the fragments every time she finished alchemy.

Quite a few of the broken stone slabs Lan Qingyou had tossed out the door had piled up beneath the giant tree's roots under her shelter.

But Lan Qingyou was disappointed.

It seemed that making an Alchemical Array Base out of iron wasn't so easy.

Even with her Appraisal Glasses, she couldn't figure out what the problem was.

So she had no choice but to put it aside for now.

But Lan Qingyou didn't sit around doing nothing. She took out the crossbow she'd picked up earlier.

She had always thought that no matter how great the threat was, she'd be safe as long as she stayed in the air.

But Shang Chuan's guns, the crossbow in her hands, and the longbows and shortbows she'd seen when picking her beginner tools all seemed capable of threatening her in the air.

They didn't seem like much for now.

But what about in the future?

These were only the lowest-tier E-Rank equipment. No one could say how far D-Rank or C-Rank gear could shoot.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Just then, a message came from Shang Chuan.

Shang Chuan: "The gun backfired."

Lan Qingyou: "...How did that happen? Tell me exactly what happened."

Shang Chuan: "The barrel exploded while I was testing the No. 9 Bullet."

Lan Qingyou: "What about the other bullets?"

Shang Chuan: "No. 8 was the best. It even triggered an explosion."

Lan Qingyou: "Uh... You can't blame me for that. They're alchemical bullets with an explosive effect. You should have Appraisal Glasses too, right?"

Yeah, right. Like I'd believe you.

Shang Chuan was already regretting asking Lan Qingyou to make bullets for him.

At first, he'd thought they were just bullets. Surely an alchemist knew how to make those.

But now he realized that if an alchemist wanted to sabotage you, you wouldn't even be able to catch her in the act.

Did Shang Chuan have Appraisal Glasses?

Actually, he didn't.

He barely ever went out, and the Small Screen had appraisal functions, so he had no use for an inferior product like that.

That was why he'd sold them to Lan Qingyou, to maximize his profits.

But thanks to the appraisal function on the Small Screen, he'd known what those bullets were and had been happy about it at first.

It wasn't until Ailuaier messaged him about the backfire that he realized he'd been completely fooled by that girl who looked so young.

As far as he was concerned, Lan Qingyou's goal was to destroy the guns on his end and keep herself safe.

Was that really what Lan Qingyou had in mind?

Yes.

No need to doubt it. Just as Shang Chuan thought, that was exactly what Lan Qingyou had in mind.

Because she simply couldn't tolerate having something like that near her.