Chapter 35

"Xiao Da, did you buy the fish?"

Zhai Da carried a fish, faint bloodstains visible inside the milky white bag.

"Bought it."

"Why so long? Did you run off to an internet cafe?"

"This fish has strong vitality, it was hard to kill."

Today is Sunday, Zhai Da's only day off, and also the day Lu Wei comes for dinner.

Last night, the [Old Man] and [Girl] combined their strengths, and the study efficiency was extremely high; he studied until past one o'clock without realizing it.

As soon as he woke up this morning, he was sent off by Ms. Yu to buy fish.

The vegetable market wasn't far, just an intersection away, but walking into the dilapidated old market, he suddenly felt he could try to look for "special items," so he wandered around inside three times, delaying things a bit.

Didn't expect he’d actually have a harvest.

This harvest was currently wrapped in a black plastic bag, hidden in his pocket.

Zhai Da entered the kitchen and handed the fish to Yu Xiaoli: "Sea bass, picked the biggest one."

Yu Xiaoli nodded and prepared to take it, but just then, the fish, which had been dead all the way and should have drunk Mengpo soup, suddenly jumped violently, the force so great that the plastic bag made a tearing sound.

"Ah!"

"Holy shit!!"

Zhai Da was so scared he threw the fish away.

Brother, are you for real? I was just joking!

I watched the boss take out the internal organs! A fish scaring people really scares people to death!

Yu Xiaoli immediately squatted down, hand rising and blade falling, the kitchen knife chopped down directly through the bag; the zombie sea bass's damage completely overflowed, and it began its countdown again.

Yu Xiaoli said with lingering fear: "Scared me to death!"

Zhai Da looked at his mom squatting and chopping, thinking to himself, you're quite scary too.

After all, it was only ten centimeters away from his toes.

"Alright, get out, don't add to the mess. Xiao Lu should arrive at 12, you go to the entrance of the residential area to pick her up in a while."

Zhai Da nodded and returned to his room first.

Closing the door, he took out the black plastic bag from his pocket.

Because it was a bit dirty, he had wrapped it very tightly; after opening it layer by layer, inside was... an iron lump.

"Congratulations to the host, discovered white special item [Tin-Core Weight]: Old Wang relied on it to earn three houses in the county..."

"Ownership status: Already owned, already activated."

"Equipment effect: When holding this item, reduce the probability of lies and small actions being exposed."

"Note: A weight cannot weigh a human heart, but cast iron can wrap a black heart."

Zhai Da weighed the weight in his hand; the black cast iron shell had rust on it, and the weight was very heavy. It was hard for an ordinary person to feel the difference, but he had tested it with the fair scale in the market afterward; it was marked as one kilogram, but actually only 700 grams...

According to the system, the core inside was "tin."

When Zhai Da proposed to buy this weight, the vegetable vendor was quite vigilant, and he had to grind his lips for nearly half an hour.

However, now that everyone in the market had switched to electronic scales, the other party clearly had new tools for crime, and the weight hadn't been used for over a year. Zhai Da expressed that he liked collecting old objects, and finally got it for 50 yuan.

And silently blocked the other party's vegetable stall.

If he hadn't learned during the conversation that the market fair-scale officer was the other party's uncle, he would have reported him.

And compared to this seemingly useless [Equipment], another matter was more important to Zhai Da.

Because there weren't many pieces of equipment currently, on the way back, he tried synthesizing all the existing items, and actually got a success prompt for one.

But because it was the first synthesis, Zhai Da was cautious and didn't do it rashly on the road, but waited until now.

In his own room, Zhai Da confirmed the door was locked again, then pulled the curtains.

Closing his eyes, he opened the system interface.

The content inside was very concise; besides being able to view past message records, there was only an [Equipment List].

But when he called out in his heart, he could open a "Synthesis Interface."

"Please drag the [Equipment] you want to synthesize into the interface."

Light blue text appeared on the interface.

Zhai Da performed the recipe he had tried just now again.

[Tin-Core Weight] and... [Clown Love Letter].

"Detecting synthesis path... path exists, synthesize?"

Straightforward text, straightforward content.

He had always had a question: in what form would "Equipment Synthesis" appear and manifest?

You have to know that every piece of equipment was real in reality, not an icon or a piece of data in a game. How could two items become one? How did the system interfere with reality?

It was precisely because of the unknown that Zhai Da didn't dare to click confirm on the road.

Looking around, Zhai Da confirmed his room was absolutely "private," and then took a deep breath and clicked confirm.

"Preparing for synthesis... please place all material equipment in a real space without observers..."

Zhai Da was stunned... without observers? Does it mean no one sees it?

There was no one else in this room... let alone cameras.

But ten seconds passed, and the system prompt kept repeating the same content, and Zhai Da realized...

Could he be an observer too?

He vaguely remembered some scientific concepts from his past life... or rather, science fiction concepts, but after all, he was just a lucky copywriter, and he had only heard a few fragments of this kind of thing.

Mixed in between countless short videos of young ladies.

So Zhai Da pondered for a moment and placed the [Clown Love Letter], which had been folded into the shape of an amulet, together with the [Tin-Core Weight] on the table.

Then he got up and left his room.

The moment the door closed, the system prompt indeed showed new content.

"Environment detected as compliant... synthesis about to proceed, please do not destroy the environment or observe without authorization..."

"Shielding fluctuations, collapsing reality... clearing traces..."

"Synthesis complete."

The whole process was extremely fast, only one or two seconds, so fast that Zhai Da felt this wasn't the time spent on "synthesis," but the time he spent reading the text...

Collapsing... sure enough, it was very similar to some things he had heard in his past life, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

This system, how was it a bit different from the "ethereal," "completely idealistic" one he imagined... it had a bit of a technological flavor?

Zhai Da couldn't describe it.

Quantum technology changing reality?

No sound, no special effects, and certainly no brilliant light... the first synthesis ended so plainly.

Zhai Da pushed open the door with doubt.

Everything seemed unchanged...

Except on the table, there appeared a... special deck of playing cards...

Zhai Da stood a few meters away, looking at the new equipment... a fold line extended from it, pointing to a text box that only existed in Zhai Da's eyes.

And that line... was green.

Zhai Da widened his eyes... didn't that mean...

"Congratulations to the host, synthesized green equipment [Clown Poker]: Crafted from tin alloy, tough and elastic."

"Ownership: Already owned, already activated (partial)."

"Equipment effect 1: When held, slightly increase sense of humor."

"Equipment effect 2: When held, lies, magic, tricks, and sweet talk are not easily exposed."

"Special effect -> Spotlight (unsealed): The clown always has a strong sense of presence, can attract people's attention, allowing you to perform some small actions."

"High-level equipment requires completing unsealing tasks to obtain full effects."

"Unsealing task: Perform ten close-up magic tricks without being exposed."

"Note: Only flexible fingers can maximize its effect."

Zhai Da picked up the clown poker; it was heavy in his hand...

To be precise... about 700 grams...

Far exceeding the weight a deck of playing cards should have.

This was Zhai Da's first time synthesizing equipment; from the process to the result, it surprised him a lot...

He had been curious before, what would a paper love letter and an iron lump synthesize into... it turned out to be metal playing cards?

And the system had follow-ups.

"Detected host's first equipment synthesis, unlocked positioning function."

"The host can now view the location of equipment in the [Equipment List]."

Zhai Da was stunned, opened the list, and sure enough, every piece of equipment in the list had a distance display.

For example, the [Clown Poker] distance was 0, because it was in his hand.

The [Sturdy Permanent 28-inch Bicycle] showed a distance of 21 meters, parked in the bike shed downstairs.

If he "clicked" with his mind, a map-like interface would appear, showing the specific location.

Zhai Da nodded secretly; this function was quite practical, at least he wouldn't be afraid of losing things.