IRM Chapter 90

William turned to the side and placed the design blueprint on the display case, smoothing it flat.

The design blueprint depicted a one-piece suit. Simple lines extended from the fingertips to the toes, with arms, torso, and legs wrapped in a layer of metal-like material. The joints had no excess attachments, ensuring the suit’s flexibility while strengthening its defensive properties.

These elements looked novel, but the structure was very basic. As long as one was an engineer, it wouldn’t be difficult to forge similar materials according to the blueprint.

William’s gaze concentrated on the chest area of the suit, where there was a device shaped like a ten-pointed star. It was designed with extreme complexity and precision. The drawing didn’t show all its components, only simply described its principles and pointed out the important conversion positions.

Even if the person looking at the drawing didn’t know its forging and assembly process, they could guess that this device could convert magic power into different elements, allowing a mage to cast magic of different elements.

Forging a single suit of clothing could create an all-element mage! This would undoubtedly drive all the mages on the continent into madness!

William closed his eyes. As long as they could forge it according to the design blueprint, winning the championship would be without suspense…

Intense jealousy and fear flashed through his heart—fortunately, he had learned that Ji Chi would also be participating in the competition. Fortunately, he had arranged everything in advance, and fortunately, the day before the selection, he had finally succeeded.

William tightened his fingers, crumpling the edges of the design blueprint until they were wrinkled. This competition was his best opportunity to showcase himself and shine at the peak. He wouldn’t let anyone interfere with him. To that end, he wouldn’t hesitate to use any means necessary.

Bard glared at William, gasping for breath several times, gritting his teeth. “I don’t know what despicable methods you used to steal it! But as an engineer, you should know very well that you can’t forge anything with just a drawing! The truly important steps are all in here!”

Bard fiercely tapped his own head with his finger!

“Yes, I know very well,” William looked at him calmly. “That’s why I want to make a deal with you.”

“How about bringing the design blueprint and joining my team?” William rested one hand on the display case and said sincerely, “You’ll still be in charge of the entire team. The other two Saint Engineers will also unconditionally obey your arrangements. I dare guarantee that this team will be the strongest among all participating teams. With your creativity, we’ll easily win the championship.”

“And…” William said slowly, “I promise you that no one will compete with you for the championship rewards. Wealth, reputation, honor… you’ll have it all.”

Bard was silent for a long time. Just when William thought he was about to agree, he suddenly let out a cold laugh, grabbed the broom from the corner of the wall, and swung it at him. “Dream on! Impossible!”

William hadn’t expected him to directly attack. His expression changed, and he dodged the filthy broom in a disheveled manner, shouting in exasperation. “What else are you dissatisfied with?! Are two Saint Engineers really not as good as those brats?!”

Bard wielded his weapon with fierce vigor. The dust and cobwebs that hadn’t been cleaned off the broom scattered everywhere, filling the entire small shop like special effects.

He cursed, “Saint Engineers mean shit! Even if you had the ability to summon the God of Forging, I wouldn’t care! With the kind of engineer you are, I dare guarantee! You’ll definitely spend your whole life living under someone else’s glory! Hiding in the shadows! No one will see you, no one will respect you! Because—you don’t even respect yourself!”

William got covered in cobwebs all over his head. Offended anger burned in his eyes. Just as he was about to speak, he choked on a mouthful of dust.

He couldn’t stop coughing. A surge of anger stuck in his chest. He hurriedly ran out of the shop in panic, crumpling the design blueprint in his hand into a ball and roaring hatefully, “Then you can’t use this design either! I’ll have someone submit it in advance. You know better than I do what the consequences are for duplicate design blueprints! When the time comes, open your eyes wide and see who’s really hiding in the shadows!”

Bard stood at the shop entrance, glaring at him with clenched teeth, veins bulging on his arms as he gripped the broom tightly.

William didn’t want to continue entangling with him. He brushed the dust off his clothes, snorted heavily, turned around, and left.

Soon, he came face to face with a familiar person. Thinking of something, he looked back at Bard. “Do you know how many gold coins I spent to buy your design blueprint?”

“A full one thousand.” William smiled maliciously. “Such a large sum—even a Great Engineer would be tempted, right? Moreover…”

William glanced at the bewildered Linton, everything left unsaid.

He threw the crumpled paper ball at Linton’s feet, waved his hand, and several guards came running out from the dark corners of the street to escort him away.

Linton held three meat pies, looking at Bard’s unpleasant expression in confusion. He squatted down and used his free hand to pick up the paper ball from the ground, shaking it open.

The wrinkled papyrus made the smooth lines become twisted and crooked, but it didn’t prevent him from seeing the design clearly.

Thud—

The meat pies fell to the ground, covered in the filthy mud from the road. Linton’s face turned deathly pale. His hands trembling, he stared at the design blueprint in disbelief.

He was stunned for a moment, then suddenly pulled off the magic bag at his waist with force, pouring out all the items inside.

Scattered parts, loose coins, and several half-forged equipment—everything except the design blueprint he had put inside yesterday evening.

“Why is it gone…” Under the puzzled gazes of passersby, Linton collapsed weakly, kneeling among the scattered items, not even noticing when several coins were picked up by others.

He unfolded the design blueprint in a daze, rubbed his eyes, and looked carefully again. The trembling of his hands grew more and more intense. “Why is it this one? Why…”

No one could give him an answer. Linton looked up at Bard with reddened eyes.

Bard looked at him silently, his expression completely cold.

William’s parting words suddenly flashed through Linton’s blank mind. He opened his mouth, not knowing how to explain, and could only shake his head weakly. “I wouldn’t do such a thing… Please believe me. I, I didn’t sell—”

“Enough,” Bard interrupted him coldly. Under Linton’s gradually despairing gaze, he squeezed his throbbing, aching brow and turned back to the shop. “Clean up the ground, and let’s go to Ji Chi’s place to discuss this.”

Linton didn’t slowly lower his head until Bard’s figure disappeared deep into the shop. He bit his lip fiercely, blood continuously flowing from between his lips and teeth.

The discussions, arguments, and experiments of this past month flashed before his eyes, scene by scene—

It was exhausting, exhausting enough to make him want to give up everything and sleep forever; infuriating, infuriating enough to make him want to secretly eliminate his uncooperative teammates and work alone; heartbreaking, heartbreaking enough to make him never want to see the bottlenecked work again and just switch profession to become a mage…

But it was all these grinding experiences that condensed into the soul of the equipment, also part of their souls. Everyone deeply loved it.

Linton hadn’t sold his soul, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t at fault.

If he hadn’t thought of another design, if he hadn’t copied the design blueprint, if he hadn’t mixed up the two drawings at the end… things wouldn’t have developed to this point.

“Why do this to me…” Linton unconsciously voiced his complaint. The intense resentment escaping from between his lips and teeth brought him back to his senses. He roughly wiped his eyes and stuffed all the scattered items back where they belonged.

Linton stood up, turned his face, and looked gloomily in the direction William had left.

Inside the [Forging House], Ji Chi yawned hugely. His hair was a mess, and he sat in front of the low table with vacant eyes.

Chloe was making all kinds of clattering noises around the house. Ji Chi rubbed his forehead and said helplessly, “Just leave it there, Miss Chloe. Don’t worry, I’ll clean it up spotlessly.”

Chloe laughed coldly. “Chloe’s previous master said the same thing every day.”

Ji Chi couldn’t help but get angry. “But I’m not trash either! Didn’t you almost clean me out yesterday again?”

Chloe’s hands had now transformed into two large cylinders—one spraying water jets outward, the other sucking the miscellaneous items in the house into the cylinder.

She paused suspiciously, subtly moving one of the cylinders away from Ji Chi’s hair, and said calmly as if nothing had happened, “Oh, sorry, force of habit.”

Ji Chi couldn’t do anything about her and angrily pounded the table once.

At the center of the table, the design blueprint that hadn’t been rolled up tightly scattered open, and a slightly different design caught Ji Chi’s eye.

Ji Chi made a sound of surprise and moved it in front of him, studying it carefully.

Suddenly, a faint glimmer appeared in his eyes. He held up the design blueprint high and murmured, “Linton, you’re really fucking talented. The academy thinks highly of you…”

Just as he finished speaking, a flash of light from a teleportation array came from the doorway. Heavy and urgent footsteps sounded—tap, tap, tap—reflecting the angry and anxious mood of the visitor.

Without even thinking, Ji Chi knew who it was. He lifted his eyes and asked lazily, “What? Did someone accidentally knee you in the head again?”

Bard kept a straight face and glared at Ji Chi, saying gruffly, “I’m not in the mood to joke with you right now! Ask Linton yourself what exactly happened!”

Ji Chi finally turned to look at Linton. Seeing his ashen expression, he propped his chin on his hand and looked at him with amusement. “What are you doing, looking like you finally managed to sell the design blueprint but didn’t receive a single gold coin?”

Linton pressed his lips together without refuting, his eyes red as he looked at him.

Ji Chi’s smile froze. “…You really sold it?”

Linton shook his head forcefully and said in a low voice, “It should have been stolen while I was asleep last night…”

Linton took a deep breath and described everything that had happened yesterday and this morning. During this time, Bard also added a few comments, and the two pieced together the general outline of events.

Ji Chi listened carefully to the entire process and sat silently in front of the low table without saying a word.

Linton clenched his fists and bent down deeply, choking out, “I’m sorry! It’s all my fault! I know apologizing is useless now, but…”

Ji Chi raised his head and asked seriously, “So did you receive that thousand gold coins?”

Linton shook his head resolutely. “I would absolutely never do such a thing! Even if I love gold coins, I couldn’t possibly exchange the design blueprint for them!”

Ji Chi clicked his tongue. “Then this is troublesome. I wonder which bastard got the bargain.”

“Please believe me… Hm?” As Linton spoke, he realized Ji Chi’s focus seemed off and looked up at him in confusion.

Ji Chi shook the design blueprint in his hand with an expression that said “you coward are really useless,” and glanced at him disapprovingly. “You already have the 2.0 version of the idea. The original design blueprint should sell for at least eight or ten thousand, right? And that’s without a middleman taking a cut.”

Linton looked completely dumbfounded, unable to tell for a moment whether Ji Chi was being serious or had lost his rationality from anger.

Ji Chi didn’t want to see his stupid expression and turned his face away, muttering quietly, “Why is this kid so thickheaded…”

Seeing Ji Chi’s nonchalant appearance, Bard was also stunned for a while. However, he quickly reacted, a glimmer of hope igniting in his eyes. He strode forward and snatched the design blueprint from Ji Chi’s hand.

Bard stared at it intently for a long time, first looking pleasantly surprised, then furrowing his brow. “The idea is a good idea, but this can only be considered a hypothesis. No one has ever researched this method before, and we only have one day left. There’s absolutely no time…”

Ji Chi raised an eyebrow and smiled. “With me here, what’s there to be afraid of? Have you already forgotten my identity? I’m—”

“The cute and adorable mascot~”