Apocalypse Gachapon

Chapter 2352: Quality increase

The Mechanical Genius was fairly lucky—with Ye Zhongming's help, his idea proved viable. That is, the mechanical war beasts Ye Zhongming made could indeed link with him and become his battle puppets.

After watching the Mechanical Genius establish a link with a Red Condensation-grade mechanical war beast and then disconnect, Ye Zhongming asked if it hurt.

The Mechanical Genius didn't think much of it and answered honestly—it didn't hurt much, just a slight physical strain, negligible.

From that day on, this person from Earth would often sink into deep regret over those words.

Because... while helping the Mechanical Genius test whether the equipment could be used, Ye Zhongming noticed changes inside the mechanical war beast during the process.

Ye Zhongming discovered that due to the Mechanical Genius's unique nature, once he linked with a mechanical war beast, it became part of him in a sense. This method endowed the mechanical war beast with a certain... vitality that even Ye Zhongming couldn't give it.

If Ye Zhongming weren't a top-tier craftsman—and arguably the second-best manufacturing master in the entire myriad races after the God Smith—he might not have noticed the fleeting change.

But once he noticed it, that tiny change could no longer escape his monitoring.

After a very short study, Ye Zhongming found that this Red Condensation-grade mechanical war beast, used as a test subject, had improved in strength despite no changes in parts, energy, or structure.

It was a holistic improvement.

This small discovery was a treasure to Ye Zhongming.

Having made the discovery, he immediately dragged the Mechanical Genius into experiments.

At first, the shota didn't mind—after all, he'd already reserved several Raini-grade war beasts worth tens of millions, which he could never afford. They were being given to him for free, so what was a little testing?

But half a day into the experiments, the shota wanted to run.

He witnessed Ye Zhongming's work state.

Insane!

That was the only way the shota could describe it.

The experiment itself wasn't complicated—Ye Zhongming made mechanical war beasts, the Mechanical Genius linked with them to give them vitality, they measured the holistic improvement, then actively disconnected.

But the frequency was too fast. The Mechanical Genius barely established a link before cutting it, and without a breath, he was onto the next test.

Each test's link depth varied—some high, some low. For this process that was essentially carving his flesh, the Mechanical Genius felt like he'd entered hell. Pain almost never left his body—only varying between mild and severe.

His face grew even paler.

More terrifying: whenever he needed rest after countless rounds of torment, Ye Zhongming would timely hand him a potion or pill for rapid recovery.

Each time the guy swallowed the medicine and returned to work, he felt like he was being camped.

Sometimes he wondered—doesn't this guy get tired? How can he keep making equipment, keep sensing the changes, without showing any fatigue?

This... wasn't human.

This inhuman ordeal lasted three full days before Ye Zhongming temporarily let him go. Yes—temporarily.

The guy had one day of rest, then would join Ye Zhongming's formal equipment crafting plan.

The Mechanical Genius was filled with despair.

Ye Zhongming didn't want this either, but the Mechanical Genius was too important to him now.

The Cloud Peak King found that mechanical war beasts given vitality by the Mechanical Genius improved holistically to a considerable degree. Without harming the shota's foundation, in the best case, working together, they could upgrade a premium Red Condensation-grade war beast to Raini-grade, or an ordinary Raini-grade to premium Raini-grade.

Why equate the two? Because Red Condensation to Raini was a true grade jump, while ordinary to premium Raini, though a big improvement, wasn't a grade increase—though in terms of holistic percentage, it was comparable.

This was immensely significant for Ye Zhongming and his forces.

Though it still couldn't break the bottleneck of crafting Lie God-grade, under the same conditions, the mechanical war beasts produced could basically be raised one small grade—that was incredible.

After all, when crafting Raini-grade equipment or war beasts, even Ye Zhongming's failure rate rose considerably. To outsiders it might seem low, but for the Cloud Peak King, in a harsh environment where catastrophe could strike anytime, every failure meant more time in danger, life hanging by a thread.

Now, with the Mechanical Genius's help, Ye Zhongming's success rate could reach essentially one hundred percent for ordinary Red Condensation-grade, ninety percent for premium. For ordinary Raini-grade, over eighty percent, and premium Raini-grade over seventy percent!

If this success rate got out, the Taros Red Dwarves would show up the next day, pointing a Lie God-grade weapon at Ye Zhongming and asking if he wanted to join or die—no third option.

Higher success rate meant less waste, saving costs. Higher grade meant higher prices, increasing profits.

In other words, Ye Zhongming could craft as before, but earn about thirty percent more!

That was an increase measured in tens of millions!

The cost was just providing the Mechanical Genius with rapid-recovery medicine—which Ye Zhongming had the Changxu Water Race for. No problem.

So when the Mechanical Genius formally joined the next day, the quality of Ye Zhongming's output jumped a tier.

One thing to note: the Mechanical Genius could only link with mechanical war beasts, not weapons and equipment. But Ye Zhongming solved this in seconds.

He changed his crafting approach, using the concept of combining war tools and mechanical war beasts—turning some mechanical war beast parts into weapons and equipment, having the Mechanical Genius give them vitality, then detaching them. Since the disconnection was active, without damage, the vitality remained and didn't diminish.

Ye Zhongming's mental energy seemed endless, his stamina monstrous. Driven by external pressure, he was full of energy, now mostly saying things like "Guy, 10 units"—telling the Mechanical Genius how much energy to input for how strong a link.

But the guy suffered terribly—like constantly carving his own flesh, voluntarily.

When Kani, the Ferosong girl, unexpectedly appeared at Cloud Peak Manor and saw the Mechanical Genius's sunken eye sockets and dark circles, she finally couldn't hold back her fury.

"Tell me, who's the shameless one? Why have you drained my Meiao?!"