Chapter 241: Magic Artillery

In the following days, Li Cheng was mainly occupied with these few tasks.

First, the Odd Mechanic skill: the delivery room sent good news—it leveled up!

After so long of study and practice—taking apart and reassembling various machines, from initially understanding each component's function, to mastering mechanical engineering, to finally inventing and creating on his own—

he crafted meaningless products like an inverted-shower machine, a Gatling water gun, and a turbocharged toilet.

After spending so much time and energy, he finally raised the Odd Mechanic skill to level three.

This warranted a firework display in his 3D warehouse to celebrate.

It was too hard—if it still hadn't leveled up, Li Cheng had even considered graduating high school early to enroll in Blue翔 Auto Repair for further training.

At level three, the Odd Mechanic could choose one of four expert types to gain a new trait.

The four expert types were: Alchemist, Magic Artillerist, Armorist, and Battlefield Artificer.

Li Cheng pondered long and hard, and first eliminated the Alchemist and Battlefield Artificer.

The Alchemist could use alchemical tools to create experimental spirit medicines, including healing potions, hallucinogenic drugs, and chemical weapons.

It was a support class, useful for large guilds, but offered little direct combat enhancement for individuals.

The Battlefield Artificer was a genius inventor who could construct war machines called Iron Guardians to protect him personally.

Iron Guardians existed in many forms: powered by magical crystals, diesel, gasoline, coal, nuclear reactors, or even solar panels.

It all depended on whether the Odd Mechanic favored steampunk, dieselpunk, biopunk, atompunk, or cyberpunk aesthetics.

But Li Cheng already had Grey Rain—her combat power was nothing a low-level Iron Guardian could even pretend to match.

Especially now that she'd learned Pokémon's Phantom Strike skill, wielding a Skull-Shattering Power Hammer, she could crush T-800s, T-1000s, and T-Xs like little kids.

Let these machines see what real darkness looks like—I'll make you fly if you dare show off.

The remaining two classes: the Magic Artillerist could construct high-power magical artillery platforms and unleash relentless bombardments.

The Armorist specialized in magical armor craftsmanship, transforming armor, boots, helmets, and weapons into specialized variants—

such as Thunder Hammers, Lightning Launchers, Power Boots, and Electromagnetic Cannons, ultimately becoming like Iron Man, able to fly and dive at will.

Both classes were evenly matched; after careful consideration, Li Cheng ultimately rejected the Armorist and chose to become a Magic Artillerist.

His 【Assembled Doll】 could plug and unplug external components, largely replacing the Armorist trait—installing a purchased item from the Slums onto himself yielded the same effect.

After Li Cheng made his choice, the Odd Mechanic's book displayed further content.

The Magic Artillerist could use magic and tools to rapidly summon a medium or small artillery platform, ranging in size from field cannons down to handheld firearms.

When creating the artillery, the Magic Artillerist could decide its appearance, whether it had legs (long-legged cannons could follow commands to move), and its type.

Such as conventional cannons, mana cannons, flamethrowers, force-field crossbows, and more.

Li Cheng tested it: at this stage, if he chose a conventional cannon, he could build only a 105mm light self-propelled artillery.

This literal WWII-era cannon, if reloaded with full-power armor-piercing or high-explosive rounds, still had decent power.

The key was that the cannon's movement was directly controlled by Li Cheng; combined with drone vision and radar detection, he could fire precisely at targets ten kilometers away and relocate immediately after firing.

In the future, he could further increase the caliber: 125mm, 155mm, 203mm, 305mm, even 406mm naval guns or railguns.

With the Odd Mechanic matters settled, Li Cheng turned to himself.

He was currently level 16, with two free attribute points unused; he allocated one each to Intelligence and Perception, indirectly increasing his spirit energy cap and recovery speed.

The third task was upgrading his taser, which Li Cheng used to elevate the quality of his Information Synthesis Glasses from Fine to Perfect.

After the upgrade, the lenses of the Synthesis Glasses subtly thickened slightly and gained a new third effect: Information Lock.

When subjected to external scanning or detection skills, it would actively alert Li Cheng and weaken the intruder's probing ability.

This was quite useful—useful for stealth infiltration, and equally useful for defending against assassination or ambush.

Having finished these tasks, Li Cheng carried twenty thousand credits to the auction house to browse for weapons suitable for him.

His old rusted cleaver was gradually falling behind his attribute stats, and during his battle with Cervantes, it had been struck and slightly damaged.

Unfortunately, the auction house had no weapons he found interesting—though Qian Hou Zhi Shou had some news.

Qian Hou Zhi Shou's old acquaintance, Red Car Driver, obtained several rare insects from another world and sold them to Li Cheng at a fair price.

The driver didn't know Li Cheng intended to extract their genes; he gently warned him that keeping them as pets was fine, but he should avoid letting the Special Affairs Bureau find out.

Lately, the Special Affairs Bureau had been cracking down hard on foreign species—succubi, snow maidens, dragonkin maids, catgirls—all seized at customs.

They claimed it was to prevent species contamination.

Hmm, actually, they weren't wrong—there had been cases before where players married catgirls and gave birth to litters of cat-eared subhuman infants who needed household registration.

That player's name was Wanli Fengdao, a mercenary who had cooperated closely with the Special Affairs Bureau and once helped them immensely.

Not registering the child would seem heartless,

but registering him would invite legal disputes—it was a mess.

In the end, they granted the child citizenship, found people within the bureau to mass-produce gear to conceal the infants' cat ears and tails, and enrolled them in the Special Affairs Bureau's family daycare in the real world, trying to let them live normal lives.

In summary, Li Cheng's current stats were:

【Dead Gambler · Master Pi Fu】

【Lv16, EXP 920/1600】

【Strength: 10】

【Agility: 10】

【Intelligence: 11】

【Constitution: 10】 (New Human: +1) (Common Man's Fury: +1)

【Perception: 12】

【Charisma: 5】 (Barbecue Enthusiast: -1)

【Equipment: Two-Yin Knife, Assembled Doll, Proof of Odd Mechanic, Holographic Bone Corridor, Bat-Hook Gun, Nuclear Lighter, Skill Transfer USB, Information Synthesis Glasses, 170 Straight Knife】

【Inventory: Death-Seeking Notebook, Automated 3D Warehouse, Insect Lord Divine Corruption Crystal, Akili Toy Factory Key #35, Wound-Stop Gel ×5, Ten-Ingredient Tonifying Pill ×10, Ten-Eye Communication Earpiece, Emergency Escape Card, Electronic Pet Egg, Shark-Type Single-Person Exoskeleton, Bat-Wing Weight Armored Motorcycle Drone, Avenger Cannon, Erotic Dao Robe】

【Skill Slots: Mist Concealment Art, Multi-Thread Brain Domain Method, Method of Experiential Role-Playing, Instant Thunder, Familiar Swap, Condensed Qi Internal Detonation Fist, Tide-Riding Wind Urgent Wave-Turning Clouds, Death Curse Torrent (Temporary), Brain Entropy Drain (Temporary), Bloodthirsty Frenzied Sipping (Temporary), Leopard Leap Double Jump (Temporary), Medium Auto-Aiming Gravity Energy Sphere (Temporary), Summoning Art · Thousand Paper Cranes (Temporary)】

【Game Currency: 20220】

【Spirit Power: 650】

【Sanity: 410】(Barbecue Enthusiast: +120) (Helicopter Destroyer: +30)

【Grey Rain: Skill Stealth Strike, Equipment Shattered Skull Power Hammer】

(End of Chapter)