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Chapter 37
"Thank you, Ryusei-kun."
Back home, Ryusei had a simple breakfast, chatted with Katsura Kotoha on LINE for a while, and then left.
Beika Library was in Beika Town, just a few bus stops away. When he arrived, the library hadn't opened yet, but many people were already waiting quietly outside.
Ryusei walked to the side, took out his phone, and searched for the book Hachishaku-san wanted to read—The Lily of the Valley.
An older woman's seduction, emotional enlightenment, youth and noblewoman, ideals and reality... Ryusei's expression became a little strange.
Hachishaku-san... she wouldn't be hinting at something to him, would she?
At nine in the morning, Beika Library opened punctually. Ryusei followed the crowd inside, entering the public facility. It was very large and immaculately clean inside.
Ryusei first went to look for The Lily of the Valley that Hachishaku-san wanted. Then, he took the book and went to wait for the elevator.
There were two elevators inside the library. The news only said that Tsugawa Shuji died in a library elevator, but it didn't specify which one. But it was not a big problem. Ryusei could take one up, and then take the other down.
The elevator arrived. Ryusei walked in with the others.
He was lucky; as soon as he entered the elevator, he saw three shimmering objects in the corner.
Two of them were round.
[System Silver Coin].
The other emitted a blue light. It was actually a ring.
Ryusei was slightly startled. The ring's light was very conspicuous, but at this moment, none of the other people in the elevator noticed it. Clearly, this ring, like the [System Silver Coin], could not be seen, touched, or heard by anyone other than him.
So, was this a gear drop?
Ryusei's hand suddenly "slipped."
The book The Lily of the Valley fell to the floor.
"Sorry..."
He immediately apologized to the people around him, then squatted down to pick up the book. The others didn't find this strange either.
Ryusei took the opportunity to pick up the two Silver Coins and the ring.
[Silver Coins +2].
[Current Wallet: 0 Gold Coins, 13 Silver Coins, 13 Copper Coins].
Ryusei glanced at his [Inventory].
A ring lay quietly inside.
Its name was: [The Curator's Malice].
The elevator door opened.
Ryusei walked out of the elevator with the book, came to the corridor, and while pretending to look out the window, opened his System Panel to carefully check the item information of the ring he had just picked up.
[The Curator's Malice]
Quality: [Fine] (Blue)
Type: Accessory
Effect: Malice Insight: The wearer can vaguely perceive the current primary negative emotions of surrounding creatures and see a faint aura of corresponding color emanating from them in their vision.
Effect: Whispering Inducement: Consumes a small amount of Mental Power to whisper-induce a target, significantly amplifying one of their current negative emotions, and making them more susceptible to the influence of this emotion for a short period.
A [Fine] quality accessory-type equipment.
Ryusei recalled the [Bright Eyes Exercise] he had purchased from the "advertisement" earlier. Its quality was also [Fine], and like the ring, it emitted a blue light.
From this, a preliminary inference could be made: [Fine] quality equipment all emit blue light.
Ryusei looked left and right; there was no one in the corridor at the moment, but there was a camera in the corner. Its appearance looked very new. It might have been installed after the Tsugawa Shuji murder case.
Ryusei turned and walked towards the restroom. After entering the cubicle and confirming there were no issues, Ryusei took out the ring from his [Inventory].
Its appearance was peculiar, and its touch was cold. The entire ring was composed of twisted, entangled dark silver metal pieces shaped like book pages, as if it were knowledge that had been twisted and corrupted. The ring's face was a perfectly round and smooth black onyx.
Ryusei pondered for a moment and then put it on his right index finger.
[Ding—]
A new System Prompt sounded.
Ryusei opened the System Panel and found three new pages had appeared inside.
The first was the [Equipment Panel]. It showed his humanoid silhouette, and currently, only his finger displayed the accessory [The Curator's Malice].
The second was the [Forging Panel]. It showed a white furnace, with a line of text next to it: No recipes found yet.
The third was the [Shatter Panel]. It showed a black vortex, with a line of text next to it: All things can be shattered.
Clearly, these three new pages were all related to equipment. Use, Create, Dismantle.
Ryusei closed the System page and focused his gaze on the fine ring on his hand. He took out his phone and aimed the camera at his hand. On the phone's screen, his hand was empty.
This meant that equipment dropped from kills, like coins, were "intangible" and would not gain "physical form" visible to others when equipped.
Ryusei put away his phone, a hint of joy flashing in his eyes. This way, he wouldn't fear that wearing equipment would be noticed as abnormal by those around him. After all, his current neighbors were not human.
Ryusei tried to take off the ring on his hand. The ring on the [Equipment Panel] also disappeared. He put the ring back on. The ring reappeared on the [Equipment Panel].
Ryusei then tried to directly remove the ring from the [Equipment Panel]. The ring on his hand disappeared accordingly and appeared in his [Inventory].
This panel seemed to be solely for his convenience in viewing and changing all the equipment he wore.
Ryusei switched to the [Forging Panel]. He tried to put items from his [Inventory] into this white furnace: bread, milk, snake corpse, notebook, pen, chewing gum... The furnace made no sound. Nothing happened at all.
It seemed that a correct recipe was needed to activate [Forging].
Ryusei switched to the [Shatter Panel].
He again tried to put items from his [Inventory] into this black vortex: bread, milk, snake corpse, notebook, pen, chewing gum... The vortex accepted everything, swallowing them all, and finally spat out some transparent small crystals resembling salt grains.
Ryusei collected them into his [Inventory], where he could see them emitting a gray light, and unique item information appeared.
[Fragment of Colorless Crystal x15]
Quality: [Worn] (Gray)
Effect: Fragments of the lowest-grade material, can be used to synthesize a complete [Colorless Crystal Block].
Ryusei looked at the item information, his expression thoughtful. Ordinary items in reality seemed to only be able to be broken down into [Fragment of Colorless Crystal].
And a new quality category appeared: [Worn]. Based on the previous inference of [Fine] being blue, all [Worn] items should be gray in color.
Although these fragments were only [Worn] items, they provided a [Recipe].
Ryusei opened the [Forging Panel] again and put these fragments into the white furnace. This time, the furnace reacted, with bright red flames burning within. A few seconds later, a complete small crystal and 5 fragments rolled out of the furnace.
On the right, a new line of text appeared.
[Recipe: [Fragment of Colorless Crystal] x10 = [Colorless Crystal Block] x1]
Ryusei collected them into his [Inventory]. The small crystal emitted a white light, and new item information appeared.
[Colorless Crystal Block]
Quality: [Common] (White)
Effect: The lowest-grade material, can be used to forge Common equipment.
Another new quality [Common] appeared, with a white color code. And it also provided recipe information: a large amount of [Colorless Crystal Block] can be used to forge [Common] equipment.
Ryusei closed the System Panel, his spirits lifted.
Thus, the goal became very clear.
That was to collect as many [Fragment of Colorless Crystal] as possible, synthesize them into [Colorless Crystal Block], and then use the [Colorless Crystal Block] to forge equipment.