Card maker? No, I'm a mechanic!

"Want to test its power?"

"Right now, right here?"

Jiang Zhe looked around the laboratory, which, although adequate, still seemed somewhat cramped.

My gaze finally settled on the rosewood workbench with a missing corner.

"Let's forget about it."

He shook his head and slightly moved his fingers to recall the floating cannon.

"It's not feasible to use it here, and this thing is probably quite powerful."

"If this shot actually lands, it'll probably be the headline in tomorrow's school newspaper."

"A tragedy for the teaching staff! A teaching assistant conspired with a professor and students to blow up a laboratory building."

"I reckon the principal will drag us out and parade us around first."

"Pfft... It's not that exaggerated."

Su Man smiled. Although she regretted not being able to see the results immediately, she understood Jiang Zhe's concerns.

After all, you can't fight in the lab, but if you go outside, you're likely to be seen by strangers.

One should not flaunt one's wealth, especially not a new card that challenges conventional wisdom.

"Alright, that's enough for today."

A flash of light, and Jiang Zhe put the floating cannon back into a card, then glanced at the clock on the wall.

"You should go home early too; patients need to rest and recuperate."

"There's still a long way to go in terms of debugging and optimization, and I don't want to take advantage of the injured."

"You still know I'm a patient?"

Su Man rolled her eyes at him in annoyance.

Although he expressed his disdain verbally, his eyes and brows betrayed an undisguised smile.

……

After seeing Su Man off, it was already late at night.

Jiang Zhe stood alone in front of the laboratory building, but did not go straight back to his apartment to rest.

He took out the experimental journal he had brought from the ruins and gently stroked it with his fingertips.

"Node 2... All personnel relocate..."

Jiang Zhe frowned slightly, and the image of the two skeletons dressed in uniforms appeared in his mind.

That was probably a near-complete experimental field, yet even in such a situation, the experimental subject managed to turn the tables and defeat the test subject.

The second node that was relocated is probably not much better off.

"That old fox is usually slippery, but this time it's hard to say."

"Since he specifically mentioned that hidden agent beforehand, I can't just wait until the body is brought back before going."

Thinking of this, Jiang Zhe put the journal back in his pocket, and his eyes darkened.

"It's a good time to go back and take a look."

Once he made up his mind, he didn't hesitate any longer and went straight out to flag down a taxi on the side of the road and headed towards the processing station.

……

Half an hour later.

That familiar smell once again filled my nostrils.

Compared to the fresh air of the academy, the air here, though polluted, gave Jiang Zhe a strange sense of reality.

The processing station wasn't quiet at night; heavy trucks loaded with waste drove in, kicking up clouds of dust under the searchlights.

Jiang Zhe found a gap on the side with practiced ease and flipped over into it.

"It's the same as always, but Old Wang has been behaving himself and hasn't been hauling waste during the day."

He muttered something to himself, then walked straight towards the staff dormitory area.

Chen Ming's room was in the far corner of the first floor, a secluded location that conveniently allowed him to slack off.

"Click".

Thanks to his understanding of mechanical mechanisms, the old padlock didn't last more than three seconds in Jiang Zhe's hands.

The room still smelled of cheap tobacco, and there was a half-finished glass of goji berry water on the table.

"Was she in such a hurry that she didn't even wash the cup?"

Jiang Zhe didn't turn on the light, but instead used the dim light from the window to quickly walk to the bedside and start groping around.

"It should be here..."

A soft sound came as my fingertip touched a loose floorboard.

A hidden compartment popped out.

Inside, there were several cards lying quietly, along with a rolled-up, yellowed sheet of paper.

Jiang Zhe unfolded it with some curiosity and looked at it by the moonlight.

It was an extremely complex card design, with dense annotations written all around it.

However, the lines are immature, and there are even a few scrapped designs that have been crossed out.

"The heart of a fire dragon... is too expensive. How about trying copper powder?"

"Another failure. Using too much copper powder is expensive! Should we try grinding it into powder with flint?"

"The loop is broken again, why?"

Looking at the blueprint, Jiang Zhe couldn't help but recall Chen Ming's usual carefree and irresponsible attitude.

Who would have thought that this seasoned veteran was working so hard behind the scenes?

"Heh, that's well hidden, and there's a contrast to it."

Jiang Zhe gently ran his fingers over the scratch marks, then sighed and carefully put them away.

"Don't worry, I'll keep the things for now and give them to you when you get back."

After doing all this, Jiang Zhe did not rush to leave.

Instead, she composed herself and turned to walk towards the lighted room not far away.

"Knock knock knock".

"Who is it? So late..."

The door was opened a crack, and Old Li, holding half a bottle of liquor, peeked out somewhat dazedly.

When he saw that the person who came in was Jiang Zhe, a hint of surprise flashed in his cloudy old eyes, and he quickly stepped back and opened the door.

"Hey, Xiao Jiang, what brings you here so late?"

"Don't stand outside, come in, come in!"

"I just finished up and came back to check on things."

Jiang Zhe walked into the house with a smile and casually pulled over a stool to sit down.

"How are you, Uncle Li? How's your health lately?"

"Hey, I'm just coasting along, waiting to die. I feel like my hands are getting worse and worse."

Old Li waved his hand and poured Jiang Zhe a glass of water.

He then took a big gulp of baijiu (Chinese liquor), and the conversation began to flow freely.

"But lately, I'm finding it increasingly harder and harder to understand this job."

He pointed to the heavy trucks still roaring outside the window, his tone full of complaints.

"Xiao Jiang, as you know, we're at the bottom of the processing plants."

"But at least some of the cards we brought in before were still usable, or some materials that could be traded for a little money."

"But ever since that fat old Wang got promoted and then ran out of money, what kind of junk has he been bringing in lately?"

As Old Li spoke, he couldn't help but slap his thigh in frustration.

"It's all rocks! All mud! There's even freshly dug-out rotten soil!"

"I spent all this morning rummaging through that waste pile, but the best I found was some loose rock and associated minerals; there wasn't even a trace of energy left!"

"Has Old Wang lost his mind?"

"He's hauling in this junk that barely makes any profit, even though he loses on shipping? What's in it for him?"

"Gravel...rotten soil?"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Zhe paused slightly in his hand holding the water glass, and his eyebrows twitched involuntarily.

"Uncle Li, you mean... these things look like scrap material just dug out of the mine?"

"Of course! I can smell that!"

Old Li nodded and said firmly.

"If you ask me, unless someone pays him to help, even a dog wouldn't do that kind of business!"

Paying out of pocket...

Jiang Zhe repeated those words, and some guesses began to form in his mind.