**Chapter 70: New Product Launch Conference [4K]**
In the underground parking lot of Happy Neighborhood, in a conference room deep within Huacheng Calamity Irresponsible Scare Company.
Three spirit energy items manufactured according to the blueprints obtained from Dachunyang Palace, along with two types of alchemical potions, were placed on the conference table. “High Person, this is the universal-type noise-blocking earplugs,” Du Sixian introduced, pointing to a pair of spirit energy items that resembled deep red Bluetooth noise-canceling headphones, “Its main function is to block the effects of hallucination-type spell formulas.”
“We did a simple test, and it can completely intercept the effects of spell formulas ranked number thirty and below. It also has some effect on spell formulas ranked from thirty to fifty.”
After speaking, she looked at Luxianbei, her gaze lingering on the glossy-feathered, elegant magpie perched on her shoulder for a few seconds. Luxianbei had originally planned to leave Jumeng behind and come to Happy Neighborhood alone to attend Huacheng Calamity Irresponsible Scare Company’s “new product launch conference.”
But Jumeng insisted on coming along, saying she wanted to see the lair of calamity, her stubbornness reminiscent of a naughty child throwing a tantrum to get their parents to buy a toy. Unable to refuse her, Luxianbei reluctantly agreed to let her transform into magpie form and brought her along.
Noticing Du Sixian’s gaze linger on Jumeng, Luxianbei stole a glance at her out of the corner of her eyes and expressionlessly explained, “Continue, Sixian, don’t mind this useless bird. Just consider it an ornamental piece with no value.”
As soon as the words fell, Luxianbei suddenly felt a sharp pain in her shoulder.
Jumeng’s small but incredibly sharp claws tightened, nearly embedding themselves into Luxianbei’s flesh, making her silently gasp in pain.
It felt like a boyfriend saying something wrong and getting his girlfriend to pinch the tender flesh at his waist.
“d*mn it! After watching that video, my tolerance for Stinky Sister has inexplicably increased! I shouldn’t have watched the clip featuring the coat!”
Now that she had seen it, what could she do? She could only let Jumeng have her way a little bit! Luxianbei thought.
After listening to Luxianbei’s explanation, Du Sixian nodded thoughtfully, withdrew her gaze from Jumeng, and picked up the next spirit energy item to continue her introduction.
“High Person, this is the A-type spirit energy circuit inflatable armor. Each piece only weighs 527 grams, but after infusing it with spirit energy, it has defensive power comparable to composite steel plates, and it consumes very little spirit energy. A D-Rank Urban Legend can sustain it for one hour, while a C-Rank Urban Legend can sustain it for an entire day.”
Luxianbei thought,
That old man Zhang Hainan is indeed cunning; these three blueprints are completely useless to me! What spirit energy items can resist hallucination-type spell formulas better than 【Royal Authority】?
And what spirit energy item has defensive power that can compare to the all-encompassing Ling Tai Purification?
Luxianbei pondered, tilting her head and asking Du Sixian, “You mentioned an A-type spirit energy circuit earlier? Does that mean there are B, C, D, and E types?”
“Mmm!” Du Sixian nodded and explained, “High Person, that’s right. In the past couple of days, we analyzed and studied all the spirit energy item blueprints you brought back. So far, we’ve identified five different independently operating spirit energy circuits.”
“We don’t know the original names of these spirit energy circuits, so for now, we can only use English letters as placeholders.” Upon hearing this, Luxianbei furrowed her brows in confusion and asked, “Wait a minute! How did you come up with five types?”
I clearly only brought back three spirit energy item blueprints! How did you analyze out five spirit energy circuits? That sounds absurd, like picking a D when given options A, B, and C! Luxianbei thought.
“High Person, it’s like this, within those three spirit energy item blueprints, there are a total of twelve different spirit energy circuits,” Du Sixian explained. “We actually identified seven types, but only five can operate independently.”
“We also identified five ways to solidify spell formulas, but so far, only one has been successfully produced.” “Oh,” Luxianbei nodded.
Got it! This means that each spirit energy item produced from the blueprints given by Zhang Hainan contains multiple spirit energy circuits and solidified spell formulas, right?
It’s like a mini-game included in a large game that can be split to form an independent game.
Luxianbei thought, pointing at the three spirit energy items on the table, looking at Du Sixian, and asked, “So, these three are not complete spirit energy items?”
Seeing this, Du Sixian’s face flashed with a hint of embarrassment. “Sorry, High Person. This is already the highest standard we can achieve at present.”
After a pause, she added, “However, you don’t need to worry. We have basically mastered the remaining spirit energy circuits, and we should be able to produce complete spirit energy items within a month. It won’t affect your plans.”
“I don’t think making them complete is necessary,” Luxianbei waved her hand. “This is good enough to sell!”
“But Du Sixian opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but suddenly thought of something, her eyes gradually brightening, “What you mean is to sell these simplified spirit energy items first, and then release new ones after a while?”
She understands this strategy. Just like many electronic products, manufacturers clearly have developed more powerful and efficient technologies but choose to release them in several iterations over time.
Upon hearing this, Jumeng shot Luxianbei a fierce glare and then clawed at her shoulder again.
She must be thinking that way, that little rascal! How wicked!
“That’s pretty much it,” Luxianbei suppressed a smirk, saying, “But this isn’t a one-time deal; we should be more benevolent about it!”
“What I mean is, let’s sell these simplified spirit energy items first and clearly inform the customers that this is just the basic version, and there are several upgraded versions available if they want to purchase the upgrades…”
“Additional cost!” Du Sixian enthusiastically added.
Jumeng,
It seems I’ve underestimated the dirty level of that rascal. And her familiar is also part of the same rotten scheme! Has the atmosphere of calamity’s lair always been like this?
I have learned so much today.
In Jumeng’s view, Huacheng Calamity Irresponsible Scare Company is simply a den of thieves compared to Peach Source! Peach Source is so nice, with beautiful scenery and an abundance of talented people.
Seeing that Du Sixian understood her intention, Luxianbei nodded in satisfaction and asked, “By the way, Du Sixian, have you finished making those special control devices for these spirit energy items that we talked about before?”
“They’re done, High Person. Still produced by that group of urban legends from the West Suburban Garbage Dump,” Du Sixian said, picking up a button-sized metal device from the table and handed it to Luxianbei.
“As long as you inject spirit energy into this little thing, it can emit a special spirit energy fluctuation that will halt the products within a hundred meters for thirty minutes.”
Luxianbei took the metal device and played with it in her hand for a moment, grasping it tightly, “You only made one?”
“Three were made.” Du Sixian smiled, “But I only brought one to show you.”
“Oh, I see.” Luxianbei nodded, “Then I want to take this one; is that okay?”
“Of course, it’s no problem!” Du Sixian replied.
“That’s good,” Luxianbei responded and skillfully tucked the metal device into her pocket.
Immediately afterward, she suddenly thought of a question and tilted her head to look at Du Sixian, asking, “Speaking of which, weren’t these spirit energy items bound to have a trial phase during their testing?”
“This could be quite dangerous! Which urban legend is responsible for this? I’ll find two high-quality urban legend core entities to compensate.”
“This? ” Du Sixian thought for a moment and said, “It’s one of the little urban legends that help guard your home! Oh, it looks somewhat like an eyeball.”
“Its companion told me that it volunteered and is an undying being, letting me operate it however I wish. Thanks to it, we could make the finished product so quickly!”
As she spoke, Du Sixian leaned closer to Luxianbei and quietly said, “High Person, what’s the origin of that eyeball urban legend? After surviving thirty-seven explosions, five spirit energy breakdowns, and seven instances of corrosive alchemical acid, while other urban legends would have long since died, it’s still alive; it’s quite terrifying.”
“Is it really undying?”
“Sort of,” Luxianbei shrugged calmly. “Let it continue to be responsible for the subsequent trials. Just arrange it boldly.”
“I understand.” Du Sixian smiled shyly, “Honestly, while I feel a bit sorry for seeing that eyeball urban legend get hurt, sometimes it’s actually quite satisfying.”
Jumeng, “???”
Wait, can this kind of torture spread? Through familiar marks?———
After staying in the underground parking lot of Happy Neighborhood for about two hours, shortly after eleven o’clock in the morning, Luxianbei left the neighborhood at Jumeng’s urging.
Sitting in the taxi back to Jingyi Apartment Complex, while the taxi drove through the city, Luxianbei took out her phone and sent a message to Lin Nian.
Gu Qiqi: “Miss Lin, I have a favor to ask you?”
Lin Nian: “Say it!”
Gu Qiqi: “It’s simple. Help me spread a message, just say that during the recent Pink Fluffy Rabbit incident, someone allegedly took advantage of the chaos to sneak out a batch of spirit energy items from Dachunyang Palace. They may enter the black market soon.”
Lin Nian: “Wow, that’s a big deal! Aren’t you afraid of being discovered by the people in Dachunyang Palace?”
Gu Qiqi: “So what if they do? Is there any definite proof that it came from Dachunyang Palace? Who knows it’s me selling them? Besides, I’m using Dachunyang Palace’s technology.”
Lin Nian: [thumbs up] “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it today! By the way, I’ve made some progress on the matter you asked me to look into last time.”
Gu Qiqi: “Oh? Is ‘Old Man Rolling 6′ finally going to have its first test? Or did someone finally find the exact reason for the lengthening of the night?”
Lin Nian: “Neither, don’t you think the gap between these two incidents is a bit too wide?”
Gu Qiqi: “Not at all.”
Lin Nian: “Alright, what I found out from your last inquiry was regarding who stole some of Pink Fluffy Rabbit’s powers.” [image] [image]
Lin Nian sent Luxianbei two news screenshots, which reported that thirty-three people had mysteriously gone missing in the cities around Spring Day Great Society and are still unaccounted for.
Country R is already known for having “eight million gods.” Although many peculiar urban legends may not have high levels of spirit energy fluctuations, their numbers are horrifying. It isn’t unusual for over thirty people to go missing in a city within a short time.
However, the strange part was that the missing persons’ timelines almost all fell within three to five hours before the Pink Fluffy Rabbit went rampant.
Lin Nian: “Last night while wandering in Moon Scraping Wind, I accidentally heard from an ability user in Country R that there were local abridged members who forcibly took some of the missing people from their homes.”
Luxianbei stared at her mobile phone screen and thought for a moment before replying, “So, those missing people didn’t just get caught up in the chaos caused by the Pink Fluffy Rabbit and were consumed by it. Instead, the local group had some way of anticipating when the Pink Fluffy Rabbit would go rampant and took them away?”
Lin Nian: “That’s what I’m thinking.”
Gu Qiqi: “Have you investigated the background of the local group that did the abductions?”
Lin Nian: “You think the local group couldn’t possibly know in advance that the Pink Fluffy Rabbit was about to go rampant?”
Gu Qiqi: “That’s right.”
Lin Nian: “I thought of that as well, which is why I started investigating before telling you.” [image]
The image displayed background information on the local groups that Lin Nian had investigated. From the details, there were five different local groups involved in the abductions, and they had many conflicts with each other, with completely different spirit energy organizations behind them.
It all seemed to be just a coincidence.
Lin Nian: “This is just part of it. If you hadn’t contacted me, I would have planned to investigate a bit more before reaching out.”
Gu Qiqi: “I understand. Thank you for your hard work. You can start spreading the news later, right? The information regarding the theft of Pink Fluffy Rabbit’s powers can wait a bit; safety is the top priority.”
Lin Nian: “Mhm, I know what to do.
It turns out that even though Lin Nian may not be able to gather intelligence on “things that might happen in her lifetime,” she is still a very capable intel gatherer most of the time.
After reading the last message, Luxianbei put her phone away, lost in thought.
She had previously guessed that if someone had successfully stolen the powers of the Pink Fluffy Rabbit, the best timing for it would be during the period between the Pink Fluffy Rabbit going rampant and its powers becoming tainted.
She just hadn’t thought about the method of stealing, and from the intelligence gathered by Lin Nian, the abducted individuals were likely the medium for that theft.
Otherwise, those local groups couldn’t possibly have abducted people purely due to the bizarre quirks of the locals in Country R, could they, to film nearby dynamic capture footage?
During that timeframe, those being eroded by the powers of the Pink Fluffy Rabbit probably wouldn’t exhibit any special characteristics, either!
What kind of force is manipulating those local groups from behind? Luxianbei wondered.
(Hey, thank you all for the blessings!)
