How About This? Still Need Three Years?

When the sun has fully risen.

The golden sunlight completely dispelled the smoke from the defensive line.

This wave of Monster Tide, which was originally massive enough to bleed the Jade Capital Defense Line dry, ended prematurely in a bizarre and even somewhat anticlimactic manner.

Apart from the Crawler who were scared back to the Assimilation Zone, all the monsters left on the defensive line were completely dismembered by the ferocious players and soldiers.

----Yes.

The Crawler can actually peel off the material.

As for Variant Monster...

Lu Xiu has killed them all.

She ran directly around the defensive line, stopping and killing anyone who wasn't running away, ignoring those who had all fled.

Nine o'clock in the morning.

Behind the defensive line.

Lu Xiu glided between the high walls and quickly arrived at the huge plaza that was originally located on the central axis of Jade Capital, but was now completely occupied by the magnificent Astera.

I just arrived in the vicinity.

She saw Chu Huai being scolded.

At this moment, Li Shengkai was completely devoid of his usual refinement, his manners utterly ruined, spitting everywhere, and he looked like he wanted to grab Chu Huai's collar. He kept saying something, and the veins on his neck were bulging with excitement.

Beside him, General Zhou Zhenyue's face was also as black as the bottom of a pot, his eyes glaring sternly at Chu Huai, clearly also furious.

The two unleashed a barrage of attacks.

Chu Huai, the ace Patrollers of the Jade Capital Defense Line line, didn't dare utter a single word at this moment.

He just stood there with a blank expression.

Lu Xiu was a little curious, so she landed directly, accompanied by a familiar deep rumble.

Laugh!

Two eerie blue tail flames suddenly shot out.

Lu Xiu landed from the sky on the open ground next to the three of them.

Bang.

After landing.

Lu Xiu gently tossed her ponytail, causing the long blue ribbon behind her head to trace a graceful arc in the air before slowly falling down, emitting a faint glow.

"----What's wrong?"

Next.

Lu Xiu looked at them and asked curiously, "What did Captain Chu do wrong?"

I saw Lu Xiu.

The air in the room seemed to freeze instantly.

Li Shengkai took a deep breath and stopped cursing.

General Zhou Zhenyue's face, which had been as dark as the bottom of a pot, gradually softened, and he managed a warm smile.

Chu Huai coughed twice and straightened his back.

The three of them didn't mention what they had just been talking about.

After all, not only did they return unscathed, but they even single-handedly wiped out the entire line of mutated Mutation.

Bringing up what just happened makes them seem overly alarmed.

but.

Looking at Lu Xiu's pretty face, Li Shengkai couldn't help but remind her, "Lu Xiu, you shouldn't go to the front lines—what if something goes wrong on your adventure?"

"Then will you turn into a monster and let me test your skills?"

Lu Xiu said helplessly, "Or can you go and try to extract materials from the Mutation instead of me?"

Li Shengkai: "----"

I'm speechless.

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. I have plenty of survival skills."

Lu Xiu also knew that the more instances she created, the greater the trouble would be if something went wrong.

The more the Coordination Bureau did so, the less they wanted her to take any risks.

But this is not a reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

"It's perfect that you're all here."

After explaining, Lu Xiu stopped worrying about the risks and instead looked directly at Chu Huai, asking, "How's the testing going with the Crawler? Can you extract materials from ordinary monsters?"

Hearing Lu Xiu ask about serious matters.

Chu Huai straightened his expression and nodded. "Yes! However—I don't know if it's because the Crawler is a low-level monster, but after trying to cut many parts, most of the parts respawned and disappeared with the corpse. What's left are mainly some [Sturdy Scale], which look quite ordinary."

As he spoke, Chu Huai took out a few dusty gray scales from his system inventory and handed them to Lu Xiu.

Lu Xiu took it and looked at it. It was indeed just average. The description wasn't anything special. It seemed like it wouldn't work well for anything.

Is that all?

There's one more thing.

Chu Huai rummaged through his system inventory again, took out a wet tongue, and handed it to Lu Xiu: "The tongues in the mouths of those Crawler can also be cut off. This was discovered by those High Sequence players. The Crawler's tongue didn't dissipate after being cut off. The description says that this thing has extremely high toughness and fire attribute affinity. The system's name for it is [Tough Long Tongue]."

This should be somewhat useful, but it's difficult to cut off. Prying open Crawler's mouth after it dies is extremely difficult; several High Sequence players had to stand the Crawler upright and pry it open with weapons, it took them a lot of effort to get it—"

"----"

Lu Xiu looked at the tongue and briefly imagined a group of High Sequence players surrounding the Crawler, prying open its mouth while shouting, "It's open! It's open a little bit!" Her expression turned strange.

The art style has finally returned to what she's familiar with.

"That's good. It proves that defeating monsters in the real world is still rewarding, but how much reward we get depends on what happens next."

Lu Xiu didn't take the tongue from Chu Huai's hand. Pretending not to see it, she turned to the side and looked at the magnificent and rugged Astera not far away. "Let's go take a look at the Astera."

"----"

Chu Huai and the other two exchanged glances and all nodded.

In fact.

Although Zhou Zhenyue and Li Shengkai had just been criticizing Chu Huai.

But one has to admire what Lu Xiu did—she was quite capable of directly chasing and killing Variant Monster.

And they actually managed to peel off the material.

That's not the most important thing, after all, materials that are useless are just scrap—but now the Astera has actually appeared in reality.

The materials have found a place to go.

They were eager to see what the materials from the monsters at the front lines could be used for.

The four entered the base.

The interior of the Astera is completely different from the devastated city outside. Huge wooden gears turn slowly, and steam rises. Although there has not yet been a large influx of players, the busy NPCs and members of the Research Commission have already filled the place with a vibrant atmosphere.

Lu Xiu hasn't spoken to any of the NPCs here yet.

However, their memories will most likely be rationalized by the system.

So now it seems that Dark Souls is quite special—after all, all the NPCs know that Lu Xiu is the Creator.

Lu Xiu was lost in thought.

The NPCs also noticed Lu Xiu and were all secretly watching her.

However, Lu Xiu did not rush to talk to these NPCs. Instead, she skillfully led Li Shengkai and the others through the lower level, up the stairs, and straight to the workshop area with the highest temperature in the base.

Before you even get close, a wave of heat hits you.

The enormous furnace was ablaze with flames, the firelight illuminating the entire Smithy in a fiery red glow.

At the very front of the furnace, a burly, bald man with a thick beard was wielding a hammer, smashing it hard against a piece of dark red metal.

Sparks flew everywhere.

The man seemed to sense Lu Xiu and the others approaching. He stopped wiping the sledgehammer in his hand, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and looked up.

Upon seeing that the visitor was Lu Xiu...

The leader of the Second Fleet, the head of the Smithy, suddenly showed a strange expression on his rugged face. "----Sir."

Upon hearing this, Chu Huai and the others immediately turned to look at Lu Xiu.

They thought the NPC's description of that "master" in the dungeon was an exaggeration.

I never expected them to call me "adult" to my face.

Lu Xiu was used to it. After thinking for a moment, she asked, "----Isn't the Commander here?"

"The Commander didn't come."

The foreman of the Smithy shook his head. "The investigation of the New World is still ongoing. Although this place also needs to be investigated, the Leader doesn't want to come, saying he doesn't want to see corpses strewn everywhere. The two of them discussed it and said—you'll be the Commander."

Lu Xiu:

I'd be perfectly capable as Commander!

But thinking about it carefully—it actually makes sense.

Because the real-world Astera is ultimately derived from a mutation of the instance— Lu Xiu personally speculates that it might just be a projection of the instance in reality.

Within this area, the Architect holds the highest authority, so it's normal for him to act as commander.

However, Zhou Zhenyue and the others clearly hadn't considered this point, and couldn't help but look at Lu Xiu again.

"Alright----"

Lu Xiu ignored their gazes and slowly nodded. "Then, can I ask you to do anything next?"

The foreman of the Smithy nodded. "Go ahead and speak."

After a moment's thought, Lu Xiu asked directly, "Can you still make equipment here?"

"Sure."

The Smithy nodded again. "However, the equipment in the New World was difficult to craft before."

"Why?"

Lu Xiu then asked, "Is it because of a lack of materials?"

"The materials are one aspect."

The foreman of the Smithy slung a hammer over his shoulder and stroked his rough beard with his large hands. "But even with the materials, it's not easy to make. The New World and the Old World are only slightly different. The new equipment system was researched for a long time before it was finalized, and the effects are also different from those in the Old World."

For example, the katana couldn't be used for Iai Slash in the Old World.

The New World, however, is an option.

But things are completely different here; you can't simply copy the equipment system from the New World.

in addition.

This world is filled with a strange, manic energy. Even with ample materials, I can't make the exact same equipment by simply copying the recipe. However, the materials from the New World are still usable.

"But if adults want to acquire new equipment, they have to start from scratch, understand the monsters that thrive in this environment, and then, based on the characteristics of the monster materials, re-analyze and design blueprints to create a completely new equipment system."

"I see----"

Upon hearing this, Lu Xiu seemed to be deep in thought.

It seems impossible to completely replicate the equipment from the dungeon.

but.

Her Deconstruction skills seem to be good.

Although the attributes are different from those of equipment found in dungeons.

However, the Blacksmith in front of us is clearly restricted by the system and cannot craft any equipment from the dungeons.

It doesn't matter.

Lu Xiu never even considered having him farm equipment from Monster Hunter dungeons; it was simply unrealistic.

"Then let's redesign it."

Lu Xiu snapped out of her daze and looked at the leader in front of her, "You need materials, right? I've actually hunted quite a few monsters here and collected a lot of materials. Why don't you take a look?"

The foreman of the Smithy was taken aback for a moment upon hearing this, then said, "----As expected of you."

".

Lu Xiu ignored his words and looked directly at Chu Huai: "Captain Chu, take the minced meat that you just cut off—"

Sigh, the materials, let him take a look.

"Good."

Chu Huai immediately stepped forward, took out [Sturdy Scale] and several [Tough Long Tongue] from his backpack, and placed them on the forging table.

The foreman of the Smithy put down his hammer, picked up a scale, examined it for a moment, and frowned slightly. "This scale—its hardness is so-so, but it's been severely corroded by that gray, frenzied energy, with too many impurities. It's not good enough to make a main deck on its own, but if there are enough of them, we can refine them in the workshop's furnace and barely make a set of makeshift armor for a low-level novice Hunter."

Then, he picked up the Crawler's long tongue, pulled it hard, and even took out a small knife and made some cuts on it.

"This tongue is extremely resilient, and its internal muscle fibers seem to possess a natural, slight resistance to high temperatures. If it were processed with a special tanning agent, it could be used as the lining of an armored stomach, and perhaps even as a bowstring—"

He began to explain.

certainly.

Lu Xiu and the other three didn't understand any of these things; they treated them like they were listening to gibberish.

"And these too."

Lu Xiu thought for a moment, then took out the materials from her backpack, including [Ripper Demon’s Steel Claw] and [Lei Yue’s Sturdy Bone].

"Hmm—these materials are even better; for example, this one has lightning-attribute activity!"

The foreman of the Smithy looked at the new material. "This density of bone is practically a natural medium for conducting lightning. If we used it as the main material—"

Next.

His gaze then shifted to the [Ripper Demon’s Steel Claw], which he forcefully bent, clicking his tongue in amazement. "A perfectly formed structure, its sharpness surpasses all the conventional metals currently in the workshop—it feels comparable to some monster materials from the New World."

Listening to the leader's explanation.

Although Zhou Zhenyue, Li Shengkai, and Chu Huai couldn't understand the professional forging terminology, they could understand the tone of their voices.

All three of them began to breathe rapidly.

Does this mean----

Can the materials skinned from monsters on the front lines really be crafted into special weapons and armor?!

This is fantastic news!

"That----"

As the director of the Dungeon Resource Management Division, Li Shengkai was all too aware of the importance of frontline monster materials for crafting equipment. He swallowed hard, stepped forward, and asked, "Sir, with these materials, what weapons and armor can we make? What auxiliary materials are needed? And approximately—when can we make them?"

Upon hearing this, the Smithy leader put down the two pieces of material, looked up, glanced at Lu Xiu, and then shook his head at Li Shengkai and the others. "It can definitely be made—but it will take time. Leave these materials with me, and I'll try to design a new set of armor or a new weapon. As for auxiliary materials, the ores and New World materials currently stored in the workshop can still be used, but we'll probably have to wait for the design drawings to come out to find out exactly what we're missing."

Li Shengkai was overjoyed upon hearing this. "That's wonderful! When can it be finished?"

"Hmm—we need to redesign, re-analyze, and re-establish the equipment family."

The Smithy leader thought for a moment and gave a timeframe, "It took us a long time to figure out the weapon and armor system of the New World. Since only one-third of the researchers have come here so far, the workshop's equipment is not yet fully debugged."

Starting from scratch, designing and building a piece of equipment that can perfectly support these materials, and establishing the corresponding production process—it would probably take about three years.

Three years?!

This number was released.

Zhou Zhenyue, Li Shengkai, and Chu Huai were completely stunned.

Li Shengkai's smile instantly froze on his face.

Then, disappointment welled up inside me.

Three years!

In a gamified world, dramatic changes can occur in three months, and by three years, even the best opportunities will have faded.

Every day, the front lines in various locations are under immense pressure, and the intensity of the Monster Tide is periodically increasing.

If it takes three years to produce results, then no matter how good these materials are, they are currently just a pile of junk that cannot be converted into combat power.

But three years later, will the equipment made from these materials still be able to deal with the monsters on the front lines?

Nobody can say for sure.

Li Shengkai couldn't help but ask, "Why is it so slow?"

He had thought the arrival of the Astera would bring a huge surprise.

Unexpectedly, there was a pleasant surprise.

It's just very small.

"This is no ordinary material."

The foreman of the Smithy replied, "Do you think these materials can be smashed like ordinary weapons?"

Li Shengkai: ".

Speechless.

Lu Xiu was also somewhat surprised to hear this.

In dungeons, as long as you hand the materials to the Blacksmith, even if they're Ancient Dragon materials, he can craft the equipment for you in the next second.

In reality, however, the system has clearly added a research time setting to allow Astera to acquire equipment.

Redesign the weapon family!

This is definitely too slow.

We finally got connected! We're farming materials from monsters on the front lines, and the Astera has appeared in reality. It's much better than those two core NPCs in the Witch Instance who require us to be on good terms with each other.

But it will take three years to truly take effect.

What kind of nonsense is this?

----Are there any other solutions?

Lu Xiu lowered her eyes and fell into deep thought.

Then suddenly—a flash of inspiration.

etc.

A redesign would take three years. What if a redesign isn't needed?

On the other side.

Zhou Zhenyue and the other two fell silent, all disappointed, but seeing Lu Xiu with her eyes also downcast, they prepared to offer words of comfort.

But before they could speak...

"Let's talk about the design later. As a top-notch craftsman, you should already have some initial inspiration in your mind when you see these materials, right?"

Lu Xiu raised her head, interrupting Zhou Zhenyue who was about to speak, and looked at the foreman of the Smithy in front of her. "For example, what materials, what auxiliary materials, can be combined to make what kind of weapon? Tell me your ideas."

The foreman of the Smithy hesitated for a moment, but still replied, "Of course that's possible—but I have many ideas."

"Then let me tell you about one of the ideas."

"Yes, sir."

He stretched out his rough, large hands, gathered the materials together, and then explained, "This piece of [Lei Yue’s Sturdy Bone], while not as tough as the Ancient Dragon of the New World, has extremely high density, and the bone itself faintly displays natural conductive patterns, making it suitable for making the arm of a bow for a ranged weapon or the barrel of a crossbow."

"As for this [Tough Long Tongue], its muscle fibers have excellent elasticity and can be used as a bowstring. As for the [Ripper Demon’s Steel Claw], it can be melted down and reforged into a heavy armor-piercing arrow. Combined with the electromagnetic power granted by the Thunder Bone Bow Arm, its power should be quite good."

As for auxiliary materials----"

He began to explain his thought process.

Bow arm, bowstring, armored arrow.

Listening to the description from the Smithy leader, a picture of a highly destructive heavy bow and arrow clearly appeared in the minds of Li Shengkai and the others.

This made Li Shengkai and the other two look even more regretful.

The better the idea.

That three-year deadline only makes people more desperate.

"Understood."

Lu Xiu nodded.

Then, stepping forward, he grabbed [Lei Yue’s Sturdy Bone], [Tough Long Tongue], and [Ripper Demon’s Steel Claw] from the forging table, all under the questioning gaze of the Smithy leader.

"Lu Xiu, what is this—" Li Shengkai was stunned, and Zhou Zhenyue and Chu Huai also looked puzzled.

Please wait a moment.

Lu Xiu replied with a sentence, and then immediately activated her Deconstruction skill.

The main ingredient is the Lei Yue’s Sturdy Bone.

The auxiliary materials are Tough Long Tongue and the Ripper Demon’s Steel Claw.

There's also a bunch of stuff the leader of the Smithy just mentioned.

These items are materials from the New World. I also collected them when Lu Xiu verified the pass, and I still have them in my backpack.

Add directly.

[Bite!]

[Compatibility calculation in progress----]

[Calculation complete.]

[Compatibility: 80%]

----That's very high.

Able.

Lu Xiu glanced at the foreman of the Smithy, then pressed confirm.

[Consume the above materials to reshape into a new creation?]

[whether]

Lu Xiu clicked "Yes" directly and then chose to reshape it into a bow.

Li Shengkai and the others watched Lu Xiu fiddling around, feeling puzzled.

Sudden.

The material in Lu Xiu's fair palm began to slowly rise into the air.

The instant it rose into the air.

The light shone brightly!

The foreman of the Smithy widened his eyes in surprise, as if he had witnessed a miracle.

Li Shengkai and his two companions weren't much better off.

Enveloped in light, the incredibly hard thunder bone began to twist and stretch as if it were alive, transforming into the main body of the giant bow.

The thick, Tough Long Tongue, purified by the light, rapidly contracted, transforming into a slender bowstring.

And the steel claw, described as indestructible, began to transform into streams of light.

Crack!

Blue arcs of electricity began to leap across the gradually forming bow arm, emitting a soft crackling sound.

This scene.

This completely stunned Li Shengkai, Zhou Zhenyue, and Chu Huai behind him.

The three of them stood there, stunned.

----You were just saying you'd have to wait three years, and then you just rolled it out like that?

Just a dozen seconds later.

The light faded.

A massive bow, with a wild and beautiful design and shimmering blue arcs of electricity and a dark gold sheen, hovered silently in front of Lu Xiu.

Lu Xiu grabbed it and checked its attributes.

[Item Name: Unnamed]

[Rating: S]

[Type: Bow]

[Attribute Bonus: Agility +1, Strength +1]

[Special Effects:]

[1. Void Thunder Arrow: The bow arm made of lightning bone can draw free electrons from the surrounding air and directly condense them into elemental arrows, dealing lightning elemental damage. When it hits the target's weak point (heart, head), there is a chance to trigger paralysis.]

However, each arrow shot will consume the player's Mental Strength. Once mental energy is depleted, the player will be unable to shoot an arrow.

[2. Tear: When paired with a physical arrow, the arrow inflicts additional lightning elemental damage and ignores 10% of the target's physical resistance upon impact.]

[3. Overload: The user can abandon conventional shooting and continuously draw the bowstring to enter the Overload charging state, frantically compressing a huge amount of lightning energy into a single point.]

After charging to its maximum (five seconds), release the string. The power and range of the elemental light arrow will be greatly increased, causing a penetrating strike along a straight path in front. All targets hit will ignore 10% of their physical and elemental resistance.

Due to the excessive burst of energy, the bow will enter a 20-minute cooldown period after the skill is released due to high heat overload.

During the cooling period, the lightning conduction efficiency of the bow decreases, resulting in a significant reduction in power.

[Equipment Requirements: Agility ≥ 15, Strength ≥ 15]

[Note: Sir, times have changed. Who still uses traditional firearms?]

It can deal elemental damage, but it can also deal physical damage.

There's also charged-up damage.

It can also ignore resistance.

That's great.

Lu Xiu grasped the large bow crackling with blue electricity, then slammed it onto the table in front of the Smithy leader. "Now? Do we really need three more years with this sample?"

Bang!

The heavy bow slammed onto the forging table with a dull thud.

Blue arcs of electricity leaping from the bow arm traveled along the tabletop, making soft crackling sounds.

At that moment, you could hear a pin drop in the entire Smithy.

The foreman of the Smithy was dumbfounded.

It took quite a while.

He then reached out his rough, large hand and gently stroked the giant bow that crackled with lightning.

"Hiss----"

An electric arc traveled along his fingertips, numbing his palm, but he held on as if caressing a rare treasure, unwilling to let go.

16

Next.

He slowly raised his head, looking at Lu Xiu as if she were a monster. "My lord, you even know this?! No, that's not right—this isn't a conventional forging method at all!"

The foreman of the Smithy saw through the weapon's true nature at a glance.

There are no marks of hammering or forging on it, no trace of the smoke and fire of a furnace.

All the materials seem to be pieced together according to some rule, in the most perfect proportions and the most extreme structure.

"A perfect lightning conduction circuit, a naturally perfect bowstring tension—even the tearing properties of the steel claws have been perfectly extracted!"

The foreman of the Smithy exclaimed, "This is already the limit that can be achieved with these materials under these conditions! Even if I spent three years researching and developing, the best result I could produce would only be this prototype! I could design, but I couldn't forge, any more advanced equipment!"

"Furthermore, with this prototype in hand, there's no need for three years of closed-door development."

"My lord! Although I haven't tested it in actual combat yet, as long as the weapon's effectiveness is as perfect as its structure—"

The foreman of the Smithy held up a thick finger and confidently declared to Lu Xiu, "One week! Just one week! Give me one week, and I can lead my team to master the relevant techniques! Then we can start mass production!"

A week?!

The moment I heard that number.

The three people, Li Shengkai were originally in a state of shutdown, suddenly realized what was happening.

Swish!

Almost simultaneously, the three of them turned their heads sharply towards Lu Xiu with an exaggerated speed that seemed capable of breaking necks.

One second ago.

They were still feeling hopeless about the three-year research and development period, feeling that all the materials scattered across the mountains had become empty promises that could not be realized for the time being.

Then one second later.

Lu Xiu directly conjured an S-grade weapon in front of them.

They shortened the three-year period to just one week!

Most importantly.

The weapon's attributes are also excellent.

When Li Shengkai, overcome with curiosity, reached out and touched the giant bow, his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets the moment he saw its attributes. He couldn't help but exclaim, "Lu Xiu!!! You're a genius!!!!"

Seeing this, Zhou Zhenyue and Chu Huai couldn't help but reach out and touch the giant bow to check its attributes.

Then, his eyes widened suddenly.