I can see experience bars after being transported to another world.

Lu Yuan sat down on the other side of the worktable and continued chewing on the dried meat.

My mind drifted away without my noticing.

Hermann mentioned that matter in his letter.

It should be Greg.

Lu Yuan slowed down his chewing.

He remembered something.

In Sandworm Town, after Greg's death, during the division of the loot, he found a badge in a hidden compartment of his satchel.

It is made of bronze and is thicker than a regular badge, with a thin slit on the back, as if it has a hidden layer.

I had tried to open it before, but it didn't work, so I stopped paying attention to it.

Given the numerous and busy events in Bronze City, this badge remained quietly at the bottom of the inventory until today.

Hermann's letter reminded him of the badge again.

Lu Yuan put down the dried meat, wiped his hands, and took out the badge from his personal bag.

Place it in your palm.

Turn it over and run your thumb along the slit.

It was almost perfectly sealed; only by relying on the reflection of the material itself could one barely see that there had been a gap there before.

Just as he was observing, a gray-white text popped up in Lu Yuan's field of vision.

[Detection Target: Weak traces of residual knowledge.]

"Um?"

Lu Yuan was a little surprised.

There's actually something hidden inside this badge?

However, it seems I can't handle it.

But right now we have Laurene, right? As an alchemy genius, she should have some tricks up her sleeve, right?

Laurinna was still busy at her workbench; the liquid in the crucible had turned from pale yellow to light green.

Her movements were steady as she observed the changes in the liquid while adding some powder.

Lu Yuan walked over and sat down opposite her.

I didn't rush to speak, waiting for her to finish her work.

Laurinna added another spoonful of powder, stirred it a few times, and then removed the crucible from the heat source and placed it on a stone slab to cool.

She looked up and glanced at Lu Yuan.

"What is it?"

Lu Yuan placed the bronze badge on the worktable.

"Take a look at this for me."

Laurinna's gaze fell on the badge.

She didn't pick it up immediately, but examined it for a few seconds first.

A bronze-colored surface, clockwork patterns, and frozen hands.

Then she picked it up, turned it over, and ran her fingers over the thin slit.

"Where did it come from?"

"The suspicious items seized during the investigation," Lu Yuan continued, "we couldn't open them before. I explored them myself, and there should be a hidden compartment inside."

Laurinna did not ask for further details.

She held the badge up to her eyes and examined its surface carefully in the light from the window.

Then she did something.

He took a thin silver needle from the drawer under the worktable and gently scratched the surface of the badge.

The tip of the silver needle left an almost invisible white mark on the copper-colored surface.

Laurena stared at the mark, her brow twitching slightly.

"Any discoveries?"

"Ordinary copper, when scratched by a silver needle, should leave a dark mark. But this one is white." Her tone was somewhat serious. "It's a special alloy."

She paused for a moment, as if recalling something.

Have you heard of memory materials?

Lu Yuan shook his head.

"This research direction was established by some of the mentors of the Tower of Learning in an attempt to decipher the Bronze City." Laurina leaned back in her chair, gently twirling the silver needle between two fingers. "Simply put, it's a metal that can 'remember'."

"Remember what?"

"Alchemy marks, or anything that takes effect as soon as it's engraved." She looked at Lu Yuan. "Ordinary metals can only hold, not store. Alchemists engrave runes on them, and the runes are on the surface. They're gone when damaged by external forces."

"But metal memory materials are different; they can 'eat' the alchemical imprint and integrate it into the internal structure of the metal. Even if the surface is completely destroyed, as long as the carrier is still there, the contents hidden inside can still be used."

Lu Yuan glanced at the badge in his palm.

Is this material rare?

"It's not just rare." Laurina's expression was somewhat subtle. "It's basically a lost art."

She put the silver needles back in the drawer.

"When I was at Boxue Tower, I took an interdisciplinary course in the School of Materials Science and Engineering, and this direction was mentioned in the class. My advisor said that many years ago, a group of people in the School of Materials Science and Engineering were doing this research, but later that group of people disappeared, and the project was discontinued."

"That's all?" Lu Yuan was a little surprised.

"Missing." Laurina said calmly, "The mentor didn't go into details, only saying that the group went on a long trip and never came back. The project data is still stored in the tower, but no one has taken over it, so it's just been left there."

Lu Yuan did not respond.

Then he asked the most crucial question.

"Could you open this for me?"

Laurina picked up the badge again and flipped through it.

"We can give it a try..." Her tone returned to the professional realm of an alchemist. "If it's memory material, the only way to open it, besides forcibly breaking it open, is to keep trying to find out what kind of solution its previous owner used as a key."

She tapped the seam on the back of the badge lightly with her fingernail.

"The idea isn't complicated. But..."

She paused for a moment.

I'm not sure.

These are four words that Lu Yuan rarely hears from her.

"I've only seen the literature on metallic memory materials once in class, and it was just an overview. The specific triggering mechanisms, those research materials should still be in the Materials Science and Engineering archives at Boxue Tower."

She glanced at Lu Yuan.

"But I dare not go back now."

"I can only speculate based on general alchemy principles and then try. It depends on the type, concentration, and combination of catalysts; even a slight difference will not work. It might work on the first try, or it might take several attempts."

She looked at the row of medicine bottles on the worktable.

"I have the basic acidic solvents. As for the catalysts... I have enough silver leaf powder and mineral salts... but I'm still missing one thing."

"What?"

"Hemlock extract." Laurina closed the drawer. "The Alchemist's doesn't have it. It's an obscure stuff, not something we use in everyday life."

She turned around and leaned against the cabinet.

"The Night's Watch branch's medicine depot should have it. They occasionally use hemlock when dealing with contaminants."

Lu Yuan nodded.

He was going to the branch office anyway, and Raymond had already helped him get access to the archives yesterday.

I'd like some hemlock extract along the way.

"I'll go to the branch office this afternoon and bring it to you on my way back."

"Okay." Laurina pushed the badge back to him. "Keep the stuff for now. We'll talk about it again when all the materials are ready."

She paused, then added.

"This material is uncommon, and the contents inside may not be stable after it's opened. After all, this discipline has disappeared, and the contents inside are very likely already damaged."

Lu Yuan put the badge away.

"Um."

Laurina did not respond, and lowered her head again, her attention returning to the pool of pale green liquid cooling in the crucible.

Lu Yuan did not go out for the rest of the morning.

He sat by the window, took out "A Guide to Knowledge Pathways," and continued to adjust his rational thinking according to the methods in the book, with his eyes closed.

Fifteen minutes later, Lu Yuan opened his eyes with a helpless expression.

[Defense I: +0.1…1.3/10]

[Sanity: -1...91/120]

It jumped only three times before stopping again.

Very slow, very slow.

But Lu Yuan was helpless and didn't know the reason. He could only hope that the experience would improve when he tried again that night.