Chapter 202: Money Is Absolutely Necessary

PS: Caught a cold, I’ll try to upload the second chapter by noon.

Yang Bo’s life entered a simple mode. Raising mice, practicing the various applications of Optical Ability online, and controlling the mecha to perform high-speed maneuvers in the confined space of the Underground Bunker.

In a space less than 800 meters wide, the mecha accelerated more and more, as long as it didn’t crash into the walls.

Recently, Yang Bo’s training reached speeds of up to Mach 4, controlling the mecha as it rapidly moved within the Underground Bunker.

How fast is Mach 4? The 800-meter distance gives less than 0.5 seconds to react, and exceeding that time becomes dangerous as a safety margin must be left.

So, how does he manage?

With Optical Ability. Using Optical Ability, he sends control signals to make the mecha perform various actions.

Yang Bo doesn’t use neural control but directly utilizes superpowers, specifically Optical Ability.

Neural control of the mecha comes with certain risks, but Yang Bo’s method is different since he’s using Optical Ability. Moreover, his body’s photon-Electric Power reserves are strong, making the dangers minimal.

However, the mental strain is great. This highly concentrated control of the mecha cannot be sustained for more than ten minutes.

Of course, the mecha isn’t moving in a circular pattern but in linear motions rapidly across the Underground Bunker in all directions.

“Are there any skills that can boost Mind Control?” The last time Yang Bo killed the leader of the Grey Ash Organization, he acquired the ability of mental proficiency.

After his daily training session, Yang Bo would rest for a while and then watch videos on material refinement.

Material refinement involves neutralizing the unnecessary energy and impurities from the main materials using various auxiliary ingredients.

“Still just an energy reaction.” Yang Bo eventually understood that, just like making gene injections, the key to focus on is the energy reaction.

“The desert pangolin I killed in the desert last time didn’t give me any ability?” Recently, Yang Bo realized something odd: the desert pangolin he killed didn’t grant him any ability.

The desert pangolin is the kind of animal used in experiments in the desert, resembling a pangolin.

“It seems that I’ll need to repeat the experiment in the desert again at some point.” Yang Bo decided to conduct another experiment to determine if the issue was with the red potion he made using Iron Bull’s saliva, or if the problem lay with the pangolin or the area of the desert itself.

“This material refinement technique is relatively low in difficulty.” Over the past few days, Yang Bo had been studying the material refinement technique in detail.

He discovered that the refining ingredients only consisted of 12 components.

The materials provided by the Fat Boss were E-grade, with only 3 to 5 auxiliary ingredients, nothing particularly complex.

The key to refining materials lies in observing the color of the energy reaction. After adding the first material to the main material, what color appears? Then, what color does it turn when the second material is added? “Let’s test it today.” After some careful study, Yang Bo prepared a batch of materials for refining.

Yang Bo opened the materials given by the Fat Boss and found that the main material was a sample of blood. He wasn’t sure what kind of blood it was; there was only a material code on it.

The blood had undergone simple processing but appeared to be diluted.

He took out the main material and other ingredients, carefully examining each one.

The auxiliary materials included powders and liquids, so he first poured an auxiliary solution into the refining container.

The refining tool was the same type of container used for making gene injections.

Next, he began heating it. As it heated, he placed the main material inside.

The rate at which you add the main material is determined by the color of the energy reaction in the container.

Once the main material is added, you continue heating, and when the energy reaction reaches a certain point, you add the other ingredients.

The process resembles the way gene injections are made.

At the final stage, the solution is filtered, and after filtering, it must be kept at a certain temperature, or other measures taken, adding the final ingredient before sealing it.

This time, the final solution should be transparent if the refining is successful.

“Looks like it went well.” For the first time, Yang Bo followed all the steps strictly without trying out any of his own ideas.

While it’s good to have creative ideas, Yang Bo wouldn’t test them until he became proficient in the process.

Gene injections have a mature and complete technological industrial chain, having been developed for so many years.

To put it bluntly, almost all improvements and optimizations have already been made. While there’s a chance his ideas could succeed, the probability is very low.

Any optimization or improvement requires a thorough understanding and familiarity with the refining process.

After careful thought, Yang Bo began a second refining test.

This time, Yang Bo entered a state in which he could observe energy particles.

The red blood split into four types of particles in Yang Bo’s vision: one green, one faintly transparent white, one red, and one black.

“So, there are four kinds of energy in this material, and only one is useful.” Yang Bo had his answer.

He began refining, thinking the faintly transparent white particles would be the useful ones, but he discovered that it was the green energy particles that remained after a series of chemical reactions, turning into white particles.

“So the useful energy in this material should be the green energy particles.”

Yang Bo conducted another refining test, confirming that his previous observation was correct: the green energy particles were the useful ones, but because of the energy reaction, they turned white.

“It seems with new main materials, continuous testing is the only way to determine which energy is useful.” Yang Bo looked at the materials in front of him. There weren’t enough to continue testing.

One material contains four types of energy. You know the green energy is useful.

But what about the other three types of energy? And how can they be individually preserved? More repeated testing is needed. With twelve auxiliary ingredients, how many different combinations are possible?

“Relying on the Fat Boss alone won’t work. I need to find a scapegoat, an identity to purchase a large quantity of materials for experimentation.”

“Iron Bull’s saliva contains three types of energy, but I don’t have enough auxiliary materials.” Yang Bo was now in a tricky situation. He had many ideas, but no materials to test them.

He anticipated needing a lot of materials: twelve types, each in 100 portions. Even so, Yang Bo wasn’t confident about purifying the Iron Bull’s saliva.

Crucially, once purified, it still has to be made into a Gene Serum. Yang Bo wasn’t sure if the desert pangolin experiment failed because of side effects.

“What a headache.”

“Should I steal data from those big companies?” Yang Bo even considered stealing data from a Gene Serum company.

“But it wouldn’t be that helpful.” Yang Bo thought for a moment and realized it wouldn’t make a big difference since he could see the energy particles within the materials better than the Gene Serum companies’ detection equipment.

Some energy can’t be detected at the current stage of development. Technology keeps progressing, just like how humans gradually discovered gravitational waves and quantum phenomena.

Before certain things are discovered, people don’t understand them, nor do they have tools capable of detecting such energies.

“Might as well focus on work for now. Next month, I’ll take leave to track down Robert’s superior… but will Robert’s superior even stick around?”

“Right now, I urgently need an identity. I’ll buy Gene Serum materials and refining materials on the black market, and I need to contact the Bounty Hunter Guild.” After calculating, Yang Bo realized he needed a secondary identity to get things done.

When the hurricane passed, the lawn in front of Yang Bo’s villa was a complete mess, littered with all kinds of debris.

There were stones, shells, and some odd marine creatures, though most of the animals were in such bad shape they were unrecognizable.

Soon, the Fat Boss sent an email asking if Yang Bo had time to come to work, since there were too many tasks at the company.

Yang Bo hurried to the company. “Boss, my lawn is full of trash. What should I do?”

“You can pay a small trash collection fee to the government, and they’ll send robots. It’s not too expensive, and you’re not a celebrity or politician, so it’s unnecessary to have residents clear it manually.”

“We have over 100 orders right now. The hurricane blew in a lot of trash, and these 100 plus orders are from celebrities, politicians, or people who care about their privacy, so they need people to clean up.” The Fat Boss asked Yang Bo to check the company orders.

Yang Bo looked and saw it was indeed as the boss said. According to the number of trash and the size of the area, the largest job paid over 8,000 credits.

As for Yang Bo, after paying the government 1,000 credits, robots would be sent to clean up his garden. As for lawn restoration, it wasn’t necessary yet, because according to weather forecasts, another hurricane was coming in two days.

Yang Bo wouldn’t have bothered with cleanup if it weren’t for the fact that the unknown animals would rot and might be poisonous.

Rotting or unknown biological corpses must be cleaned up in time, or you’ll face hefty fines and multiple charges.

Yang Bo quickly started on his task list. After accepting the assignments, he drove to the destination and saw several robots already working in the neighborhood’s yards.

Arriving at the client’s place, he opened the flying car, then grabbed his tools and protective suit.

Next to the house was a small villa, about 500 square meters, with the main building covering less than 200 square meters, consisting of just two floors.

Yang Bo changed into his protective suit and took his tools to the gate.

“Hello, I’m the cleaner sent by An Zhijie Corporation.” Yang Bo found the intercom on the fence.

“Hello, I’m not in Omar City right now, but I’ll unlock the door. Thank you.” A woman’s voice came through the intercom.

Yang Bo, surprised by the voice, thought, “It’s her?”

Yang Bo now had a talent for identifying voices, and the voice on the intercom matched the chairwoman of the Bounty Hunter Guild.

Yang Bo entered the yard and started cleaning the trash.

Whether someone lived there or not, the government would send a message reminding the homeowner to clean up the debris as soon as possible.

Those who required privacy, including celebrities and politicians, would hire people to clean up manually, while others could just pay the government, who would send out robots.

In this society, tasks that robots could do had low costs. Human labor, on the other hand, was far more expensive.

Back at Yang Bo’s place, his lawn was being cleaned by robots. Since he was a low-level resident, there were many discounts.

After cleaning, the government would send a drone or a person to inspect the work, and if all was well, the homeowner would pay the company.

Yang Bo cleaned the debris from the yard, which included trees, shells, stones, and unknown marine animal corpses.

As he worked, Yang Bo observed the building. The stone villa looked quite ordinary, even a bit plain, giving the impression the residents weren’t very wealthy, but certainly better off than average.

Most people lived in apartments, that is, rooms in multi-story buildings.

Only a few lived in villas, which came with nearly double the taxes and other costs associated with owning them. If the villa cost one million, the annual taxes and related fees would reach nearly 200,000.

Of course, that was the minimum. Villas of different qualities had corresponding taxes and fees.

The better they were built, the higher the costs.

Yang Bo coughed a couple of times and used sound waves to scan the stone villa. It was an ordinary structure, except for a room in the attic that couldn’t be scanned, likely due to energy detection shielding or special materials used to protect that room.

Yang Bo had used standard sound waves, not the energy sound waves.

Energy sound waves, similar to his sound wave attacks, had stronger penetrative power but consumed a lot of energy.

These waves were also easily detected by energy scanning devices.

The transmission speed of energy sound waves far exceeded regular sound waves, which travel at around 300 meters per second. Energy sound waves could travel at the speed of energy itself, depending on Yang Bo’s needs.

“Looks like there’s something going on in the attic.” Yang Bo had understood the layout of the stone villa. As for the unscannable attic, Yang Bo’s curiosity was piqued.

It was like the villa Yang Bo built for himself—energy detection couldn’t penetrate it, let alone sound waves.

Yang Bo didn’t show any unusual behavior. He cleaned the area thoroughly, and shortly after, a government drone passed over, inspected the place, and left.

Seeing the task was completed, Yang Bo returned to the company. After lunch, he took on another job.

“Money is absolutely necessary.” The reason Yang Bo kept taking jobs was that the Gene Serum materials and refining techniques he needed weren’t cheap.

“I’d better start making money in the game.” Yang Bo realized that earning money in the mecha game was much faster than trying to work in real life.