novelraw Chapter 644: New Reconnaissance Method and New Strange News
Chapter 644: New Reconnaissance Method and New Strange News
Chapter 644: New Reconnaissance Method and New Strange News
The underground laboratory had undergone considerable changes during this period.
A month ago, it had been nothing more than a damp, dark basement built with rough stone bricks.
Mold spots grew in the corners, the air was filled with the smell of soil and decaying wood, and the light from the gas lamps could not illuminate every corner. There were always shadows hiding beyond the line of sight.
Now, silver-white metal had replaced those stone bricks, covering every inch of the walls.
It extended from the floor all the way to the ceiling, with seamless joints, as if the space had been carved out from a single massive metal ingot. The metal surface emitted a soft, glowing white light—uniform and stable—illuminating the entire laboratory with no shadows.
Walking inside felt like being constantly under shadowless lamps.
Experimental equipment now filled the entire space.
On a long table against the wall, various glassware were neatly arranged.
Beakers, test tubes, petri dishes, distillation flasks… They came in different sizes and shapes, but every piece was spotlessly clean, gleaming with a transparent luster under the glowing white light.
On the workbench on the other side were various instruments Jie Ming had taken from his inner world.
Several metal cabinets stood in the corner with tightly closed doors, storing various Strange fragments and sealing materials inside.
Simple runes were carved on the surface of the cabinets to isolate energy fluctuations and prevent interference between different samples.
The space itself was also far larger than it had been initially.
When Jie Ming renovated this basement, he used spatial expansion techniques common in the wizard world to “stretch” the existing space.
Now, if anyone entered this basement, they would definitely be surprised, because the interior space was already close in size to a large assembly hall.
After nearly a month of renovation, this temporary laboratory was barely usable for Jie Ming.
He could finally put various experiments on the agenda.
At this moment, Jie Ming stood in front of the workbench in the center of the laboratory. In front of him was a transparent culture vessel the size of a fist.
The vessel was made of high-transparency quartz glass. Its inner walls had undergone special hydrophobic treatment and contained a semi-transparent culture solution. The culture solution appeared empty.
If an ordinary person stood here, they would think there was nothing inside the culture vessel… perhaps just some forgotten water. But Jie Ming’s eyes were not ordinary.
All-Purpose Eye.
A golden light flashed deep within his pupils. The interior of the culture vessel underwent a dramatic change in his vision. The seemingly empty culture solution became almost transparent to the point of vanishing, while at the center of the solution, a tiny object about the size of a bacterium was suspended in the liquid, rhythmically emitting a faint glow.
This was a new type of reconnaissance method he had created using Strange fragments from this world.
After arriving in this plane, many of Jie Ming’s conventional reconnaissance methods had lost their effectiveness due to the need to consider the Stranges here.
His spiritual power scanning was still usable during the day. As long as the intensity was kept below a certain threshold, it would not attract any trouble.
But at night, or when encountering certain Stranges particularly sensitive to energy fluctuations, spiritual power scanning became a potential detonator. He could not do as he had in the wizard world—unrestrainedly covering the entire city with spiritual power and then sitting at home while learning everyone’s secrets clearly.
Other reconnaissance methods, if they exposed too high an energy intensity, would also attract Stranges.
Thus, aside from the limited spiritual power scanning during the day, his most reliable means of gathering intelligence had actually come from the black-market brokers. Although those people were not on the surface, their information networks were indeed well-connected.
Where new Stranges had appeared, what goods were available on the black market, and what the Official Spirit Medium Association had been busy with lately—they knew bits and pieces of it all.
But for Jie Ming, this was too passive.
Jie Ming disliked being passive, so he decided to solve the reconnaissance problem first.
The bacterium-sized reconnaissance unit before him was his answer.
The creation process was not particularly complicated.
He needed a reconnaissance unit capable of gathering intelligence over a large area for a long time without attracting the attention of Stranges.
This unit could not have overly strong energy fluctuations, could not emit an “unnatural” aura, and would preferably make Stranges feel it was one of their own.
Thus, he thought of Strange fragments.
The collected Strange fragments had come in handy at this moment.
Jie Ming crushed and reconstructed part of the Strange fragments, extracting their unique energy characteristics, then fused these characteristics into the reconnaissance organism he had designed.
The method was actually quite crude.
He had nearly physically combined the core structure of the reconnaissance unit with the power fragments of the Strange, making the thing’s external energy fluctuations appear more like a Strange.
As for the core reconnaissance capability of this unit, it inherited from a reconnaissance-type rune artifact he had widely used during his low-level wizard days: the Micro Light Eye.
He had directly retained that name for the new version.
Although the new Micro Light Eye had almost nothing in common with the old one besides the name.
From Jie Ming’s current level, the reconnaissance and concealment capabilities of the Micro Light Eye were not particularly strong.
In the wizard world, a reconnaissance unit of this level would be considered entry-level at best. Any knowledgeable wizard could see through and counter it in just a few moves.
But in this world, it was sufficient.
After a month of intelligence gathering and in-depth observation of the Strange ecosystem, Jie Ming had confirmed one fact: unless under special circumstances, Stranges did not interfere with each other.
They were like signal towers occupying different channels, with no intersection, no communication, and perhaps not even able to perceive each other’s existence.
The Micro Light Eye had exploited this loophole.
Of course, the technology was still immature.
Due to the influence of Strange power, the Micro Light Eye’s survival time was quite limited.
Jie Ming looked at the tiny glowing point in the culture vessel and silently calculated in his mind.
From the moment it was “activated,” it could probably survive for about a month.
After a month, it would die and decompose like a living organism, ultimately returning to nothingness.
However, Jie Ming was very satisfied.
This was only a preliminary prototype.
Once his research on Stranges deepened, the Micro Light Eye’s survival time could become even longer.
More importantly, this thing could be mass-produced.
He screwed the lid of the culture vessel shut and casually stored it into his inner world.
In the corner of the workbench, more than a dozen identical culture vessels were already neatly arranged. Inside each, samples of the Micro Light Eye were slowly growing.
Just as he was about to begin the next experiment, his movements paused.
The formation array around the bookstore had sent back information.
Someone was approaching.
Jie Ming raised his head. His gaze pierced through the ceiling, through layers of bricks, stone, and wooden boards, landing on the stone-slab road outside the bookstore entrance.
His vision seemed to directly penetrate these obstacles and see the visitor.
It was that black-market broker.
Jie Ming withdrew his gaze, tidied the items on the workbench briefly, and then walked up the stairs.
When the door of the used bookstore was pushed open, Jie Ming was sitting in the rocking chair with a newspaper in his hands.
He looked no different from a month ago.
The oil lamp had been replaced with a light bulb, but Jie Ming rarely used it. Most of the time, he still lit that oil lamp.
The orange-yellow light danced between the bookshelves, making the dust on the old book spines look like a thin layer of golden powder.
“Mr. Jie Ming!” The black-market broker’s voice came from the doorway, carrying a fawning enthusiasm. “Good evening, good evening.”
Jie Ming put down the newspaper and glanced at him.
The black-market broker was wearing a dark gray trench coat similar to last time. He was not carrying a suitcase, but a bulging canvas bag on his back. The bag was large, pressing his shoulders down slightly, but there was no sign of strain on his face.
It was clear that although this person was not some expert, having mixed in the underground world, his physical condition was quite a bit better than that of ordinary people.
“Come in,” Jie Ming said.
The black-market broker hurriedly walked in, closed the door behind him, and bolted it.
His movements were very practiced, clearly having already ingrained the process into muscle memory.
“What did you bring this time?” Jie Ming skipped the pleasantries.
The black-market broker took the canvas bag off his back and carefully placed it on the ground before unzipping it.
The bag was stuffed full of glass bottles and metal boxes of various sizes. Labels with abbreviations and codes that Jie Ming could not understand were stuck on the bottles.
“This batch is of very high quality,” the black-market broker said with a hint of pride. “They all recently flowed in from the north. Things have been unstable there lately, so a lot of goods that used to be kept under wraps have come out. I picked out a few of the best ones and brought them specially for you.”
Jie Ming squatted down, casually picked up a glass bottle, and examined it under the light.
The liquid inside the bottle was an unhealthy dark red, with fine flocculent matter floating on the surface.
With just his naked eyes and passive spiritual perception, he could already determine the general composition of the contents.
“Too many impurities,” he put the bottle back. “The purification process is inadequate. The mortality rate after injection is probably over ninety-eight percent.”
The black-market broker’s expression stiffened for a moment, then he immediately forced a smile. “That’s exactly why I came to you. These things are waste in other people’s hands, but treasures in yours.”
Jie Ming did not respond.
His gaze swept across the items in the canvas bag, then he stood up.
“The materials?”
The black-market broker hurriedly took out a cloth bundle from the inner pocket of his trench coat and handed it over with both hands. “The ones you requested last time—I managed to get all of them. This one was particularly hard to find, especially this…”
He pointed at a gray-white fragment with a metallic sheen inside the cloth bundle. “This is a Threat Grade Strange fragment. Very rare on the market. I went through several channels and finally got it from an old acquaintance who specializes in this business. It wasn’t cheap.”
Jie Ming took the cloth bundle, opened it, and glanced inside.
The gray-white fragment emitted a faint cold light under the lamp. The patterns on its surface were far more complex than those on Hazard Grade Strange fragments, with more layers and a tighter structure.
He nodded and stored the cloth bundle away.
“There’s one more thing,” the black-market broker rubbed his hands together, his expression turning somewhat subtle. “I have some… intelligence here. I wonder if you’re interested.”
Jie Ming glanced at him.
The black-market broker immediately understood the meaning of that look: speak.
“The Spirit Medium Association has finally confirmed it,” he lowered his voice as if speaking of some great secret. “The recent disappearances in the old district were not ordinary security issues. They were caused by a new Strange.”
Jie Ming’s expression did not change, but his attention clearly focused.
“They’ve figured it out?” he asked.
“They have,” the black-market broker nodded. “The Association sent two teams to handle it. The first team has already… been wiped out. Not a single person returned.”
Jie Ming’s eyebrows rose slightly.
“Not a single person returned?”
“Not a single person returned,” the black-market broker repeated, his tone carrying a trace of barely concealed tension. “Their deaths have been confirmed. The Association has issued an internal notice saying that Strange is highly dangerous. Preliminary assessment suggests it is at least Threat Grade, and possibly at the peak of Threat Grade.”
Peak of Threat Grade.
The image of the Graffiti Strange appeared in Jie Ming’s mind.
That had been a Threat Grade Strange, and quite a troublesome one among them.
If this new Strange was also at the peak of Threat Grade, it was indeed worth paying attention to.
“Any more specific information?” he asked.
The black-market broker shook his head. “That’s all for now. The Association is keeping the information tightly sealed. I only learned about it through a friend inside the Association. But I can continue to keep an eye out for you and inform you as soon as there’s new information.”
Jie Ming was silent for a few seconds, then nodded.
“I’ll take this batch,” he said. “Same as usual. Come pick it up in three days. The money is over there. Take it yourself.”
He pointed at the iron box that had always been placed in the corner.
The black-market broker hurriedly walked over, opened the box, and glanced inside to confirm the amount was correct.
He then took the glass bottles and metal boxes out of the canvas bag one by one and neatly arranged them on the bookshelves.
Soon, the goods were all laid out and the money counted.
The black-market broker put the canvas bag back on his back and bowed to Jie Ming. “Then, Mr. Jie Ming, I’ll take my leave first. I’ll come again in three days.”
Jie Ming did not see him off. He simply nodded.
The black-market broker turned toward the door. Just as his hand touched the bolt, he suddenly could not help sneezing.
“What’s wrong? Feeling unwell?” Jie Ming’s voice came from behind.
The black-market broker turned his head and saw Jie Ming leaning back in the rocking chair, once again holding the newspaper with a calm expression as if nothing had happened.
“It’s nothing,” the black-market broker shook his head. “My nose might just be a bit uncomfortable.”
He unbolted the door, pushed open the wooden door, and walked into the night of Mist Capital.
The wooden door closed behind him.
Jie Ming put down the newspaper and tapped his fingers lightly on the armrest once.
That Micro Light Eye had already attached itself to the inner side of the black-market broker’s trench coat collar.
With the black-market broker’s perceptive ability, he would never discover its existence.
An extra layer of insurance was always good.
Jie Ming did not stand up, but the glass bottles and metal boxes on the bookshelves suddenly shook.
They sprouted limbs made of the same material as themselves. After bowing to Jie Ming, they marched neatly and uniformly toward the basement.
“A peak Threat Grade Strange, huh…”
Jie Ming casually picked up a passing bottle of dark red liquid and examined it carefully. The corners of his mouth curved slightly upward.
He happened to be lacking a decent research sample.