Chapter 87: Equipment Update

Chapter 87: Chapter 87: Equipment Update

An hour later.

Xiang Yi shut off the computer.

He had finished every piece of study material Master Chang had prepared for him, and it had all sunk in perfectly.

He’d barely made a dent in his Spiritual Power — he’d even had time to brush up on his high school coursework on the side.

Master Chang still hadn’t come back, so there was no point in Xiang Yi hanging around the study any longer.

He headed out and walked over to the factory next door.

The robots were still at it, sorting through crate after crate of materials as usual.

The junk with little value got hauled outside, while anything worth keeping was stored temporarily in the warehouse beside the workshop.

Every now and then, a robot would carry off a batch of pre-sorted materials from the warehouse and send it down another assembly line.

Xiang Yi wasn’t about to waste the limited time he had to scavenge for materials.

He dove straight into the warehouse.

He started picking through the scrapped mechanical and electronic components — smaller items, the kind that looked like they came from more advanced tech.

He kept pulling up readout panels on the scrap pieces, then cross-referencing them online against the materials needed to manufacture each module part, comparing them one by one.

Two hours in, he hadn’t even finished going through a single crate.

Mostly it was the online searches eating up his time.

On top of that, to keep track of exactly which high-grade materials were contained in each piece of scrap, Xiang Yi had started writing sticky notes and slapping them onto any discarded component that had something worthwhile inside.

That way it’d be useful whether Xiang Yi came back for them later or Master Chang wanted to sort out what was worth keeping.

Still, his luck wasn’t bad today — the number of materials he needed to repair the Living Iron Extraction Device wasn’t that many to begin with.

All four high-grade materials and one special-grade material he needed turned up within half a crate.

He’d gotten what he came for, but he couldn’t exactly take off for the abandoned district while Master Chang was still out.

So while he waited, he figured he might as well make use of the tools and materials in Master Chang’s factory to upgrade his gear.

Xiang Yi had Shi Tie set down the backpack, then inventoried everything he currently had on hand that could be modified.

A Laser Rifle, a Mind Pulse Generator, one 7.62x39mm Homemade Rifle, two 5.56x45mm Military Rifles, and two 9mm Military Handguns.

There was also a Portable Biological Sensor and a Portable Psychic Wave Detector.

Whenever Xiang Yi went out, he pretty much always brought all his important gear with him.

With Shi Tie carrying the load, it was never really an issue.

When it came to upgrading everything, the Laser Rifle was out from the start — it had already gone through a unique modification and Spiritual Enhancement, so only basic modifications were possible on it now.

That left the Mind Pulse Generator as the next thing to work on.

["Edge Company" Continuous Psychic Pulse Distortion Field Generator]

[Energy Core: "Edge Company" Universal Stable Power Supply for Compact Devices]

[Signal Source Module: "Edge Company" Level 1 Spiritual Energy Band Signal Generator]

[Functional Module: "Edge Company" Level 1 Spiritual Fluctuation Tuning Device]

[Structure Type: "Edge Company" Continuous Psychic Pulse Generator Universal Frame]

[Additional Attachment: "Edge Company" Experimental Spiritual Signal Amplifier]

Looking at the panel, the [Signal Source Module] seemed to be the core component responsible for emitting Spiritual Fluctuations.

Xiang Yi selected that part and chose [Unique Modification].

The material selection screen that popped up only showed two options — Living Iron and Blood Crystal. There were no high-grade or special-grade materials listed; only Abnormality Materials qualified for a unique modification.

After a moment’s thought, Xiang Yi went with Living Iron.

A rare, all-purpose material — putting it into a Mind Pulse Generator was absolutely worth it.

The modification wrapped up quickly. Just like every other modification he’d done before, only one line on the generator’s panel had changed.

[Signal Source Module: "Living Iron" Level 1 Spiritual Energy Band Signal Generator]

The Edge Company label had been replaced with Living Iron. Nothing else looked different on the surface.

Xiang Yi didn’t bother testing the performance changes yet.

If he was going to upgrade it, he was going all the way.

He went ahead and applied [Spiritual Enhancement] to the generator.

The same three options he’d seen before when upgrading the Mining Gun popped up on the panel.

[Weapon Orientation], [Device Orientation], and [Tool Orientation].

Any of the three seemed viable.

All he really wanted from upgrading the Mind Pulse Generator was a straight boost in performance.

But since he’d gone with Weapon Orientation last time on the Mining Laser Gun, this time Xiang Yi was curious what [Device Orientation] would do differently.

After selecting [Device Orientation], the panel again displayed six options.

[Potent], [Efficient], [Sustained], [Stable], [Compact], and [Protective].

None of them had the all-out aggressive feel of the Weapon Orientation options, but each one represented a quality you’d actually want in a piece of equipment.

After thinking it over, Xiang Yi chose [Potent].

The moment the enhancement direction was confirmed, his Spiritual Power began to drain steadily.

By the time the drain had eaten through nearly a third of his total reserves, the Spiritual Enhancement on the Mind Pulse Generator was complete.

The most noticeable change was the generator’s appearance.

Before, it had been roughly the size of a human head — a slightly curved hemisphere with two antennas sticking out of the top.

Now the whole thing had reshaped itself into something resembling a satellite dish on a mounting base. The size hadn’t changed much though; it could still fit in a backpack.

Xiang Yi pulled up the panel on the new generator.

["Living Iron" Continuous Psychic Pulse Distortion Field Generator]

[Energy Core: "Device · Potent" Compact Instantaneous Overload Power Supply]

[Signal Source Module: "Living Iron" Level 2 Spiritual Energy Band Signal Generator]

[Functional Module: "Device · Potent" Level 2 Spiritual Fluctuation Tuning Device]

[Structure Type: "Device · Potent" Continuous Psychic Pulse Distortion Field Generator Frame]

[Additional Attachment: "Device · Potent" Fluctuating Spiritual Signal Amplifier]

Clearly the Psychic Pulse had jumped from Level 1 to Level 2.

He had no idea exactly how big the gap between Level 2 and Level 1 was, but it had to be significant.

The whole device had shifted toward being more "potent" across the board.

He’d have to find a target to test the effect later — or better yet... just use Shi Tie as a guinea pig.

A few minutes later.

Xiang Yi was being hauled back to the workshop by Shi Tie, one hand clamped over his head.

Sharp, stabbing pain was pulsing through his skull in waves.

He had set it to the lowest output setting in the adjustable range.

He’d also set the Spiritual Fluctuation frequency’s target to "all" rather than specifically humans or Spiritual Entities.

He’d even rigged up a remote controller for the generator and approached it slowly from the outer edge of its coverage zone.

And yet the moment he’d gotten close enough to the device itself, the Level 2 Psychic Pulse had hit him hard enough that his head was still throbbing now.

Shi Tie had only staggered a couple of times, but Xiang Yi had genuinely almost blacked out.

Still, he’d kept himself in check — nothing bad enough to cause any lasting damage.

After about ten minutes of recovering, he was more or less back to normal.

So he’d upgraded the generator, and the generator had returned the favor by roughing him up a little.

Even so, his mental state was still holding up fine. He should have enough left in the tank to enhance one or two more things.

After thinking it over, he decided to try upgrading a few of his rifles.

For conventional powder-based firearms like rifles, Xiang Yi had no intention of using Living Iron for the unique modification.

Partly because Master Chang had mentioned it was an exceptionally rare material, but also because of something Xiang Yi had picked up from the Human Federation textbooks earlier.

The Human Federation currently divided weapons into four broad categories: ballistic weapons, Laser Weapons, explosive weapons, and chemical weapons.

And then there were Spiritual Ability Weapons — not covered in the textbooks, but something Master Chang had mentioned as a separate class of their own.

Living Iron had no business being wasted on a ballistic weapon like a rifle.

So Xiang Yi decided not to touch the Living Iron — but Blood Crystal was still fair game.

He pulled up the panel on one of the 5.56x45mm Military Rifles and, with practiced ease, selected the firing mechanism for a unique modification.

The modification finished quickly. The result: whenever a bullet fired from the rifle found its mark, Blood Crystal Fragments would burst from the point of impact.

It was similar to the Blood Crystal Laser Bomb mode on the Laser Rifle — less raw stopping power, but still a serious threat to any person on the receiving end.

This wasn’t an effect tied to his Spiritual Energy acting on individual bullets, either. Every round that left the barrel would carry the ability to detonate Blood Crystal Fragments on impact.

That was the power his Spiritual Energy had given the weapon.

After testing it, Xiang Yi opened the panel again and selected [Spiritual Enhancement].

The same three familiar options appeared.

Xiang Yi had been planning to go with [Weapon Orientation], but his eyes drifted almost on their own over to [Tool Orientation].

That was the only one he hadn’t tried yet.

Curiosity got the better of him, and he selected [Tool Orientation].

From the six options under Tool Orientation — Potent, Durable, Stable, Portable, Precise, and Versatile — Xiang Yi picked [Potent], which in some ways was the most all-around useful choice of the bunch.

As the modification ran its course and finished, the Blood Crystal Rifle’s shape shifted again.

It became more compact, fitting more snugly in the hand.

It was starting to look like... a power drill?