A Caution Rank mission had brought rewards on par with hunting a Town Rank UMA, sending shockwaves through the ranks of lower-tier investigators and making Lin Jie's name the talk of the town.
Lin Jie wasn't caught up in the vanity of being noticed.
He knew perfectly well that points and pounds only had real value once they were converted into tangible combat strength.
After saying goodbye to William and Marcus and agreeing on how to get in touch next time, he returned to the inn to rest for most of the day. Then he hurried straight to that sacred hall of chaos and creativity: the Fourth Equipment Laboratory of the "artisan," Arthur Conan.
When he pushed open the heavy metal door, he was greeted by the familiar smells of machine oil and herbs.
Arthur Conan was hunched over his enormous workbench like a diligent spider, surrounded by countless blueprints and parts.
He seemed to be conducting some sort of dissection and study of the black crystal recovered from the Mist Walker. He muttered to himself, utterly absorbed in his own world.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Arthur. I've brought something... that might interest you." Lin Jie's voice broke the silence in the workshop.
Arthur raised his head and peered through his complicated goggles, his gaze tinged with annoyance at the interruption.
But when he saw Lin Jie, his irritated expression softened a little. "It's you, you lucky brat. What is it this time? Find another treasure some idiots threw away?"
His words were as sharp as ever, but Lin Jie had grown used to the genius craftsman's way of speaking.
"Maybe." Lin Jie smiled. He didn't immediately take out the top-grade materials he'd just acquired. To an "artist" of Arthur's caliber, merely supplying good materials would make him nothing more than a qualified "supplier."
To truly earn his respect and get him to willingly devote himself to the work, Lin Jie had to produce something that would make even this "master artist" see things in a whole new light.
Lin Jie took a rolled-up piece of parchment from inside his coat and slowly spread it across the only reasonably tidy section of the workbench.
It was a blueprint.
A design sketch, drawn by Lin Jie himself, for a brand-new Grotesque Armament.
The draftsmanship wasn't particularly professional, and the lines were a little crude. But what it depicted, along with the design principles written beside it in thoroughly modern terms, was enough to leave any nineteenth-century engineer or designer dumbfounded.
The main design resembled a vambrace, but it was lighter than an ordinary one and fit the contours of the arm more closely.
It was made of layers of treated leather and metal plates, with several recesses where "spiritual materials" could be inserted.
That, in itself, wasn't unusual.
What truly changed Arthur's expression were the revolutionary design notes Lin Jie had written in English beside the drawing.
"Design principles: modularity and interchangeability." Lin Jie's notes read, "The vambrace serves as a universal platform. Standardized interfaces allow functional modules containing different 'spiritual materials' to be swapped out or added at any time."
"For example, a 'Void Rubber' module can be installed for stealth, while a 'Chaos Brass' module can be swapped in to fight mechanical constructs. Changing modules lets one piece of equipment handle a variety of situations, greatly improving a hunter's versatility and chances of survival."
"Optimized energy transmission pathways." Beside another note was a complex diagram tracing the flow of energy. "Traditional equipment allows spiritual power to disperse in an uncontrolled manner. Instead, etch 'Spirit Conduction Circuits' made of pure silver or electrum inside the vambrace in advance."
"When a hunter channels their power, it will travel efficiently along fixed pathways to the designated functional module. This reduces energy loss and allows for more precise, concentrated effects."
"For example, directing the power of 'Chaos Brass' through the circuits to an impact module at the fingertips would produce a small-scale, targeted 'mechanical paralysis' effect."
"Application of ergonomics." Beside an illustration of an arm, Lin Jie had written, "The equipment's shape and weight distribution must strictly adhere to ergonomic principles."
"By optimizing leverage and the center of gravity, the equipment can provide powerful functions while minimizing its negative impact on the user's agility and stamina. The goal is a 'high degree of integration' between user and equipment, not a simple external attachment."
At first, Arthur Conan merely gave the blueprint a casual glance.
But as his eyes moved across the lines of notes filled with subversive ideas, his expression shifted from disdain to surprise, then to solemnity, and finally to utter disbelief and shock!
The hand holding his tweezers began to tremble uncontrollably.
He snatched up the blueprint and cranked his complicated goggles to their highest magnification, bringing his face almost against the page.
"Modularity... standardized interfaces... Spirit Conduction Circuits... ergonomics?" Arthur repeated the unfamiliar words over and over, words that seemed to open the door to an entirely new world.
"A genius! This is the kind of design only a madman or a genius could come up with!" Arthur suddenly looked up. Behind layer upon layer of lenses, his eyes blazed with fervent admiration for the intellect before him!
"You... How on earth does your brain work? You're transmitting spiritual power through circuits as if it were an electric current? Assembling Grotesque Armaments in modules, like products on an assembly line? This... This is an outright desecration of every armament-forging theory of the past several centuries! And the most magnificent... revolution!"
He no longer called Lin Jie "brat." Instead, he addressed him as "you," still brusque, but now speaking to him as an equal.
Lin Jie smiled inwardly.
His "dimensional strike" of a blueprint had hit the one thing the genius craftsman was most proud of—and most vulnerable about.
Arthur Conan was one of the finest armament-forging masters of his era, but all his designs were still confined by the frameworks of "empiricism" and "mysticism."
He could make clever designs based on the properties of materials, but that kind of work was more like a gifted artist's creation.
What Lin Jie had brought him was a new "technical" path, one founded on the principles of modern industry and science.
He had transformed the design of Grotesque Armaments from a purely artistic craft into an applied science that could be quantified, optimized, and systematically improved!
For a technical perfectionist like Arthur, the shock of this new way of thinking far outweighed the gift of any number of top-grade materials.
"I just have a few... slightly different ideas," Lin Jie said modestly.
"No! These aren't just ideas!" Arthur exclaimed, waving the blueprint in his hand. "This is an entirely new path! A broad avenue that can free Grotesque Armament production from its excessive dependence on individual craftsmen's inspiration and lead it toward standardization and efficiency!"
"Damn it, how did I never think of this? We've been studying how to make the materials themselves stronger, but never considered that optimizing their 'structure' and 'method of transmission' could make materials that only performed at a sixty deliver eighty—or even a hundred—percent of their potential!"
The way he looked at Lin Jie had changed.
Before, Lin Jie had been nothing more than a supplier with good luck and sharp instincts in his eyes.
Now Lin Jie had become a theoretical master who could speak to him as an equal and even guide him in certain areas of "design philosophy"!
"Tell me, what materials do you want to use to bring this insane design to life?" Arthur asked, his voice brimming with anticipation.
He could hardly wait to turn this revolutionary theory into a real masterpiece with his own hands.
A smile of triumph curled across Lin Jie's lips.
He solemnly placed on the workbench several ingots of mutated brass imbued with powerful "chaotic" energy, along with a roll of "Void Rubber" that shimmered with a strange light-absorbing property.
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