Chapter 360: Debt and Return

Since he was at Nuolun No. 13 Academy, Jie Ming was in no hurry to return to his remote Nuolun No. 147 plane immediately.

On one hand, he needed to wait for the follow-up processing and possible summons of that intelligence by the Expeditionary Force headquarters; on the other hand, the opportunity to learn from Mentor Clark again was also very rare.

In the following days, he stayed in Mentor Clark's huge and complex laboratory, acting as a senior assistant, dealing with various precise experimental data and material pre-processing work, while closely paying attention to any news that might come from the headquarters.

Of course, the terrifying memory of being instantly erased before always lingered in his heart.

It is no exaggeration to say that as one of the few who had truly experienced the feeling of death, Jie Ming found that his fear of death had not shrunk but increased.

In addition, regarding the Substitute Doll he consumed before, Jie Ming still didn't know its specific value until now.

After all, he hadn't paid Mentor Clark for this thing yet.

This is the norm in the wizard world.

Wizards who advocate equivalent exchange, even if they are close master and apprentice, calculate clearly when involving such precious resources.

Mentors can give shelter, knowledge, and opportunities, and can even cushion life-saving items like Clark did.

But the corresponding price must be borne by the student.

There can be discounts, but the price can never be waived.

It was because Jie Ming hadn't used this thing for sure before, essentially just an insurance that hadn't been used yet, so he didn't need to consider these problems.

But now, he couldn't pretend not to know.

During a break in an experiment, he asked Mentor Clark seemingly casually: "Mentor, that—Substitute Doll, do you have any stock here? Or, do you know where else I can get similar life-saving items?"

Clark didn't even lift his head, focusing on the rune engraving in his hand, and answered flatly: "The last one I had was used on you. If you want to buy it, I can contact my mentor on your behalf; he occasionally takes such orders."

Jie Ming was happy in his heart, but before he could speak, Clark added: "However, let me tell you in advance, this thing is very expensive."

"How expensive?" Jie Ming subconsciously touched his terminal.

Inside lay his savings over the years; relying on the "self-stabilizing field regulation protocol" technology, Jie Ming felt it should be quite generous.

Clark finally stopped his work and glanced at him, not reporting the number directly, just saying: "The advanced military merit exchange area of the magic network has a public price, you can check it yourself. Your authority should be enough."

Jie Ming's heart skipped a beat.

Advanced military merit area?

The things in there are all hard currency.

He immediately connected to the magic network through spiritual connection, and after authority verification, entered that area he rarely involved in.

After some searching, he really found the entry for "Substitute Doll (Standard Alchemy/Fate Science Composite Product)."

Just looking at the long string of zeros behind it, Jie Ming felt his heart stop beating for a moment.

One hundred billion advanced military merits!

He calculated quickly in his brain; according to the unofficial floating exchange rate, this was equivalent to one trillion ordinary military merits!

Moreover, advanced military merit itself represents not just numbers, but also vouchers for adjustment and repair time and rare resources!

This price—

Even if Jie Ming sold all his assets, he probably couldn't afford one.

What made people even more desperate was that it was clearly marked below the entry: Reserve: Extremely low (requires reservation, production cycle takes centuries).

Jie Ming gasped, looking at Mentor Clark with a tearful face: "Mentor—this—even if you sell me, I can't afford it—"

Mentor Clark was quite calm about this, picking up the tool again to engrave, his tone without any waves: "It doesn't matter, it's just carrying some debt. With your potential, pay it back slowly; the life of a wizard is very long."

Jie Ming's mouth twitched; this debt was more than "some," it was simply an astronomical figure!

Originally, he could still mock Senior Sister Wei Aola for carrying debt and becoming a beast of burden; now he had also become one of the beasts of burden—

Jie Ming was unwilling to give up and searched for other miracle items or wizardry scrolls with similar substitution or resurrection effects.

The result made him even more desperate.

Any item or service involving "causality reversal," "soul anchoring," "instant death avoidance," etc., was outrageously expensive, and most had extremely strict usage restrictions or side effects.

In comparison, the Substitute Doll was almost the one with the highest cost-performance ratio and the fewest side effects.

"Forget it, forget it—" Jie Ming completely gave up the idea of getting another life-saving artifact in the short term.

With these resources, it would be more cost-effective to spend them on himself to improve his strength.

At the same time, he was also secretly shocked by the terrifying "money-making" ability of high-level alchemists, especially those involved in the field of fate.

A Tier 7 alchemist who can stably manufacture Substitute Dolls probably has a wealth accumulation speed and channel more terrifying than many Tier 8 combat wizards who are not good at business.

"Wait—" Jie Ming was suddenly stunned, looking at Mentor Clark, "Peak alchemy attainments, concurrently studying fate knowledge—Mentor, isn't this the path you are taking?"

Once Mentor Clark is promoted to Tier 7, wouldn't that be—

His eyes lit up, and he said half-jokingly and half-expectantly: "Mentor! You must work hard to advance quickly!

Whether I can use 'internal price' Substitute Dolls in the future all depends on you!"

Clark sneered when he heard this, pointing to the mountain of experimental data recording crystals piled up next to him with the rune engraving pen in his hand: "Want to hug my thigh? You can. Pay off some interest on the debt you owe me first—immediately, right now, go and process and analyze all seventeen sets of energy leakage fluctuation data generated today at the third workbench! If you can't finish it, don't even think about leaving the laboratory tonight."

"Yes! Mentor! Guarantee to complete the task!" Jie Ming immediately put away his joking attitude, ran to the third workbench, and began his first hard labor in his "debt repayment" career.

Time passed for two months in this fulfilling life as a research assistant.

Just when Jie Ming was almost getting used to this regular life, and even started to optimize his rune wizardry and Black Giant design, news about that plane came.

However, the latest progress on that strange plane did not come from the official announcement of the Expeditionary Force headquarters.

But because—

Wei Aola is back. ===== CHAPTER 361 =====

It was because—

Sister Wei Ao had returned.