Chapter 73: Online Consultation

Chapter 73: Chapter 73: Online Consultation

Xiang Yi didn’t linger at the research institute either.

He spent a moment at the containment room door to check on the Blood Crystal’s condition, then left.

He headed back into the sewers with Shi Tie and the Living Iron Generator in tow.

The Living Iron Generator tested well. Just ten grams of Living Iron had filled its battery to full capacity — it looked like the thing could run for a good long while.

Once the generator was set up and squared away, Xiang Yi’s mind immediately shifted to the other device he’d found beneath the hospital: the Living Iron Extraction Device.

Since Shi Tie could only carry one piece of equipment at a time, the Extraction Device had been left behind at the research institute for now.

He had no intention of going back to haul it to the sewers anytime soon.

There was no point.

He had no containment room here, and there was no way to recreate the conditions he’d used the first time he’d contained a Blood Crystal — the kind of environment that could put one into a dormant state.

That would be far too dangerous. Better to keep using the equipment at the research institute.

Besides, hadn’t he just locked the Blood Crystal inside the containment room over there?

And couldn’t the Extraction Device be put to use on the Blood Crystal Worm just as well?

Still, the matter of repairing the Extraction Device stayed on Xiang Yi’s mind.

He had no technical expertise, and he certainly didn’t have access to the high-grade or specialized materials a repair like that would require.

But a man couldn’t just sit around and suffocate on a problem when there was a way through it.

And he’d already thought of one.

Xiang Yi pulled up his terminal and did a quick search online.

It didn’t take long before he found a high-precision equipment repair company called "Suzi Tech · Repairs."

Their official website offered a paid online "consultation" service — open to anyone — where the patient in question was, of course, whatever device needed fixing.

Different types of equipment came at different price points.

The categories ranged from everyday consumer appliances all the way up to military hardware, Spiritual Devices, and Abnormality Equipment. Clearly, this company knew what it was doing.

There was also a privacy-conscious option called "Partial Structure Repair."

All you had to do was describe the problem, download a 3D modeling program on your personal terminal, use the terminal’s built-in scanner to map the damaged components, and upload the resulting model.

Xiang Yi had already scanned the two damaged components on the Living Iron Extraction Device — the ones flagged as [Physical Structure Damaged] and [Activation Structure Missing] — back when he’d been at the research institute.

He’d created his website account on the way back. No ID verification required — just a linked payment card.

He paid a two-hundred-coin deposit, uploaded the 3D scans of the Extraction Device’s damaged components, and selected the partial structure repair consultation option.

He wasn’t particularly worried about getting scammed.

He’d come across a handful of news articles about Suzi Tech online — it was an up-and-coming tech company, and everything he’d read was fairly positive.

And besides, it was only two hundred coins. Even if it turned out to be some fake site run by scammers, he could live with that.

As it happened, Xiang Yi’s luck held on this one.

Less than half an hour later, a response came back from the site.

An encrypted file titled *User "Physical Abnormality Living Iron Extraction Device" Repair Plan* had been sent to him.

The name alone spoke to the site’s professionalism.

Xiang Yi had only submitted a 3D model of a few damaged components, and they’d already identified exactly what kind of device he was working with.

The reply email also made a point of noting that every repair plan was signed by a certified Engineer, with their Human Federation professional certification verifiable through the official registry at any time.

There was a catch, though: the encrypted file only showed the first few hundred characters. Unlocking the rest required payment.

Unlike the flat rates listed elsewhere on the site, the "partial structure repair" service was priced based on the complexity of the device and the difficulty of the repair — something the website stated plainly.

And unlocking the full document for Xiang Yi’s device would cost thirty thousand Federation Coins.

His sixty million was still nowhere in sight, and just like that, more than half of what little he had on hand was about to disappear.

But money sitting untouched was just a number.

And while the price was a bit of a gut-punch at first glance, it was actually fairly reasonable, all things considered — especially relative to what the device itself was worth.

The few hundred characters he’d already been able to read were more than enough to confirm the repair plan was the real deal.

Besides, you get what you pay for.

So Xiang Yi paid without batting an eye and unlocked the document. Well — okay, he blinked a few times.

The document laid out two different repair approaches.

The first made full use of commercially available automated tools. Get the complete toolkit together, and you could carry out the entire repair yourself without needing a professional technician.

The second was more detailed and thorough. No automated tools required, but it did need someone with a working knowledge of basic mechanical principles, along with a standard set of repair tools, and a strict adherence to each step in the process.

Every step was explained clearly, with key points called out directly in the document. The thing could practically double as a textbook.

Even Shi Tie could follow it.

Xiang Yi, at the very least, had an engineering background.

And it wasn’t like he’d been sitting around doing nothing during his downtime in the sewers these past few days.

He’d downloaded every Human Federation textbook he could find online — elementary school through high school — and hadn’t skipped a single one that had any bearing on his technical skill set.

This world’s technology was far more advanced than what he’d come from, which meant the curriculum had naturally evolved to match.

With Spiritual Energy accelerating his thinking, he’d already fully absorbed everything he’d once studied back in his old world but that had since been updated or revised in this one.

Basic mechanical repair in this world held no mysteries for him.

University-level textbooks were still out of reach for now, which meant that if he strayed beyond the scope of this document and tried to work on an unfamiliar device, he’d still be lost when it came to understanding the underlying principles.

But what he already had was more than enough to make sense of the repair plan laid out in this document.

He wouldn’t even need to work with his hands when it came to the actual repair.

Once he had a solid enough grasp of the technique, his Spiritual Energy could handle all the fine manual work for him.

All he really needed to do was get his hands on the materials listed at the end of the document.

That section also spelled out every type and quantity needed, and even thoughtfully suggested that users prepare around ten percent extra as a buffer.

The thirty thousand Federation Coins had been well spent, no question about it. Every mental hurdle involved in actually fixing the device had already been cleared by Suzi Tech’s Engineers.

What remained really was just a matter of following instructions.

Except that, in Xiang Yi’s particular situation, there was one more problem to deal with.

Where was he supposed to find all these materials?

Some of what the document listed were things Xiang Yi had never even heard of.

Looked like he’d be making another trip to the Southwest City District.