Goodbye, Beloved Dream...

Dawn had only just begun to break, but plenty of people in Chinatown were already up, setting up their stalls or getting in their morning exercise.

When they saw Kraft sprinting down the street, they all wore surprised expressions.

"Hey! Isn't that Martin's kid? You're actually up this early today?"

The elderly men and women gathered for their morning exercises greeted Kraft one after another.

Kraft stopped, politely greeted them back, then answered, "I suddenly got some inspiration, so I'm heading to the lab to run a few experiments."

"I always knew you'd amount to something, kid!"

An old man patted Kraft on the shoulder and praised him with a broad, gap-toothed grin before turning to brag to his old buddies.

"What did I say back then? You could tell Kraft was a smart kid just by looking at him, but none of you believed me!"

"Pah! Have you no shame, Old Zhang? Little Li fixed your radio, and you only tossed out a compliment because you didn't want to pay him for the work. Do you think I don't know what a cheapskate you are?"

"Exactly! What are you putting on airs for, Old Zhang? And I remember you really didn't pay him in the end, you shameless old bastard!"

The old men showed Old Zhang no mercy, tearing down his boast one after another. Naturally, Old Zhang refused to let it go. Forgetting all about Kraft, he launched into a spirited war of words with the crowd.

"Forget those foolish old men," said an old lady holding a large red fan as she pulled Kraft over to her side. "You haven't had breakfast yet, have you? Here, Grandma made these rice cakes herself. Take them and fill your stomach."

"Rice cakes alone will make you choke. I've got a bottle of milk here too."

Another old lady came over and handed him a bottle of milk, while the other grandmothers also contributed whatever food they had brought with them.

"Thank you, Grandmas."

Kraft did not stand on ceremony. He accepted the food, packed it all into a bag, then waved goodbye to the old ladies.

"I'm in a hurry to get to the lab, so I'll be going now."

"What a good child. If my grandson were even half as outstanding as him, I'd be happy."

"Exactly. I heard the things this kid makes have earned him quite a bit of money. Even the TV station went to his school to interview them."

"And he's handsome too, so refined. What was that phrase again? Scholarly air! Right, like one of those great talents from ancient times. No, I can't let such a fine young man slip away. One day, I need to talk to Martin and see if we can become in-laws."

"Dream on, you old hag! With that chubby granddaughter of yours, she'd be a better match for that boy from the Liao family. Kraft is going to be my granddaughter's husband!"

After the old men, the old ladies also began arguing over Kraft.

Kraft, who had already left, had no idea he had somehow gained several fiancées. By then, he had arrived at his private workshop with the food in hand.

But Kraft had no mind for breakfast right then. He casually set the food on a nearby table, dug an old recorder out from a pile of materials, and began taking it apart.

Since he had no Bow Tie on hand, Kraft simply made the voice changer into the shape of a small speaker. Once it was done, he turned on the computer on the desk and, recalling the code Professor Agasa had written in his dream, typed it out word for word.

Once everything was finished, Kraft followed Professor Agasa's example and opened a video, recording a voice sample from it before raising the small speaker to his mouth.

"Hello, hello. How are you? My name is Kraft Lee... Holy shit! This actually works!"

The altered voice ringing in his ears was exactly the same as the audio source from the video. Kraft was utterly dumbfounded.

"This isn't scientific!"

He plunged his fingers deep into his hair as his thoughts descended into chaos.

Thinking back on it now, those Power-Enhancing Shoes had seemed abnormal too. They merely used electric currents to stimulate his muscles, yet they had allowed him to fling a burly man weighing over a hundred pounds several yards away with one hand, without any side effects at all. That was far too exaggerated. Kraft simply had not noticed before because he knew little about bioengineering.

"So Professor Agasa's world had some kind of mysterious element too?"

After thinking for a long time, that was the only conclusion Kraft could reach. He had dreamed of other technological worlds blessed with unusual powers before, but the special powers in those worlds had always been obvious. Professor Agasa's world had hidden them too well, making him think it was an ordinary world just like this one.

"So that means I can master those mysterious powers too?"

At that thought, Kraft became excited again. He had long coveted the Daoist Magic, spells, and other mystical creations that had appeared in his dreams. But since he knew nothing about cultivation or magic, he had always treated them as movies and nothing more.

But things were different now. If Kraft could replicate Professor Agasa's incredible power, didn't that mean he could learn all those dreamlike methods of flying through the sky and burrowing through the earth as well?

It was not as though Kraft had never tried those mystical methods before, and every attempt had failed. But perhaps the time simply had not been right before? Just as his dreams kept evolving, perhaps he could now master these wondrous powers.

Kraft eagerly pulled out a mechanism bird he had made earlier. Recalling the rune and incantation the Mohist disciples used to animate mechanisms, he picked up a carving knife and carefully engraved the rune onto it. Then he began chanting, "Silent, one thinks. Speaking, one instructs. Moving, one acts... Ha!"

Mimicking the movements of the Mohist disciples in his dream, Kraft shouted and pointed a finger at the mechanism bird on the table.

The mechanism bird did not move at all. None of the sound and light effects from his dream appeared.

"Why did it fail?!"

Unwilling to give up, Kraft tried several more times. Unfortunately, neither the mechanism bird he had made before nor the mechanism dog he had just made showed any reaction.

"Damn it! Was my guess wrong? Or does American soil not support Mohist Mechanism Arts?"

Not intending to give up so easily, Kraft changed his approach and began trying magic instead.

He also guessed that perhaps he could not yet grasp methods requiring the support of mysterious power. Maybe, like Professor Agasa's inventions, he needed something that could be made directly into a finished product.

Kraft thought it over. Among magical systems, the only option that seemed to fit those requirements was brewing potions. Although the lab had substitutes for most tools, for something this mystical, it was better to match the original tools from the dream as closely as possible. Besides, he did not have the ingredients for potion brewing here, so he would need to buy them again.

No matter how anxious he was, it would not help. He should fill his stomach first.

Kraft rubbed his stomach, which had begun protesting loudly, and finally calmed down. After all that fussing around, it was nearly noon. Not only had he skipped breakfast, he had even skipped his morning classes.

As Kraft took out the food the old ladies had given him, he called Fatty Liao.

"Hello, David, it's me."

Kraft said indistinctly through a mouthful of rice cake.

"I lost track of time while doing experiments and only just remembered I had class today. But the experiment isn't finished yet, so I won't be going this afternoon either. Help me ask the teacher for leave."

Even without the matter involving Tony Stark, Kraft did not need to care too much about school rules, considering Martin Lee's status as a school board member. Still, he was not the sort of person who took kindness for granted, so he called Fatty Liao to let him know.

After hanging up, Kraft wolfed down the food, then immediately headed out to buy the tools and ingredients needed to brew potions.

The tools for brewing potions were not particularly complicated, but many potion ingredients were materials from magical creatures Kraft had never even heard of. He searched for a long time before finding one potion whose ingredients could all be gathered on Earth. Kraft scoured all of Chinatown and even made a trip to a reptile pet shop before finally collecting everything he needed.

"Dried toad, lizard tail, ink cap mushroom..."

Following the order, Kraft dropped the ingredients one by one into an antique-looking cauldron.

Cauldrons were essential equipment in many chemical experiments, so Kraft had no shortage of them. But modern scientific cauldrons differed considerably from those in medieval magical worlds. To be safe, Kraft found one that resembled the dream version. He had dug this one out of an antique store owned by Martin.

Following the potion-making steps from his dream, Kraft stirred the mixture while muttering spells like the young witch had done. After more than an hour, he finally finished brewing the potion called Slick Potion.

After pouring the potion into a prepared beaker, Kraft removed his mask and fell into deep thought.

He had impulsively brewed the potion, but now came the question...

Who was he supposed to give this thing to?

Kraft leaned close to the beaker and gave it a light sniff...

"Blech..."

The smell shot straight to his skull and nearly made him vomit everything he had eaten for lunch.

"Something's wrong! The Slick Potion in the dream didn't smell like this..."

In Kraft's dream, the Slick Potion had been used by that witch to improve her skin. After brewing it, she had eagerly drunk it. Out of curiosity, Kraft had dipped a finger into the leftover potion and tasted it himself. Its flavor had been a little strange, but it had definitely not given off the rotten stench of the one before him.

"Looks like it failed again..."

After spending a long time psyching himself up, Kraft still could not summon the courage to try the bizarre liquid. In the end, he poured it into the waste disposal barrel.

"What a waste of excitement..."

Besides the potion, Kraft still refused to give up and tested other wondrous creations from his dreams. The results remained far from ideal. Exhausted, Kraft lay on the laboratory floor, sighing helplessly.

"So Professor Agasa's inventions really were purely scientific creations?"

If creations involving mysterious powers could not be replicated, then the Power-Enhancing Shoes and Bowtie Voice Changer must not have contained any mysterious power.

"Was it because the laws of physics differed between worlds or something? Then why could I replicate them?"

Although being able to master this strange power was a good thing, Kraft was still curious about the specific reason behind it. He wanted to find someone to test whether only he could make these unscientific scientific creations, but that would very likely expose his uniqueness. Besides, Kraft had no intention of spreading these more extraordinary tools around. In the end, he chose to stop pursuing the matter.