Chapter 143: Weather Tides
The only regret was that ebony and white ivory weren't revolvers, so he temporarily lost the benefits of the level 10 Wandering Gunslinger talent, Revolver Mastery, which granted a 10% increase in firing speed and a 12% boost to piercing power for revolver-type weapons.
Zhou Ning couldn't help but feel relieved—thankfully, he had chosen Elegant Footwork as his level 20 talent!
After studying the weapons, Zhou Ning clicked on the item he had been looking forward to the most in his inventory—the Gnomeregan dungeon summoning stone—and selected "Use." In an instant, the summoning stone vanished from his inventory, and a new feature appeared beneath his NPC template: Dungeon Generation.
After fiddling with it for a bit, Zhou Ning gradually figured out how the feature worked—when he crossed into a game-type simulation world, he had the chance to receive dungeon summoning stones after participating in dungeon storylines, thereby unlocking the ability to generate that dungeon through his NPC template.
He immediately clicked into it. The screen shifted, and a new interface popped up. For now, there was only a single dungeon: a city that looked somewhat rundown.
He reached out and clicked to select it. His palm sank slightly as a pitch-black miniature stele appeared.
[Lv10–Lv20 Dungeon Summoning Stone – Gnomeregan]
[Description: The fabled Gnome capital—the Miracle City of Gnomeregan—has been invaded by troggs. The Gnome High Tinkerer himself has been betrayed by his advisor, Sicco Thermaplugg. Can you help them reclaim their homeland?]
[Type: 5-player regression-type dungeon]
[Current Clears: 0]
[Highest Completion Rate: 0%]
[First-Clear Party: None]
The dungeon level was lower than he expected. In World of Warcraft, Gnomeregan should be a level 25+ dungeon, so it seemed that the power scaling in Apocalypse World was slightly higher than in WoW.
But that was just as well—right now, the average player level was around 7. In a few more days, players over level 10 would start to appear. This could be used to his advantage, making himself more attractive to players.
After dealing with the rewards, Zhou Ning stood on the balcony for a while to enjoy the night view, then turned his attention to what he needed to do next:
"I definitely need to go to West Lin Town tomorrow. If I wait any longer, a lot of people might get impatient and switch to other classes, costing me a whole field of leeks."
"Now that I have this house, it's time to put the comprehensive laboratory on the agenda. With a full lab, I should be able to try upgrading the Phoenix Battle Suit, and making standard firearms shouldn't be a problem either."
"But setting up the lab, buying equipment and machine tools—those are going to cost a fortune. Not to mention I also need a carriage, a maid, and a coachman…"
"I was thinking, now that I've got money, why not enjoy life a little—but in the end, I'm still just a broke guy at heart…"
Thinking of the First Emperor template worth 250,000 Vecktas, Zhou Ning could only sigh.
...
The next day, Zhou Ning woke up naturally in his new environment. He took his time getting dressed and washed up before heading downstairs.
The maid hired by the Urban Fair Housing Association wouldn't arrive until tomorrow, so Zhou Ning made his own breakfast and read the newspaper that had been delivered to his mailbox—a complimentary perk from the housing association, which had a partnership with the Darkland Post, offering one year of free newspapers with every home purchase.
After reading for a few minutes, Zhou Ning's gaze sharpened as he noticed a headline on the second page:
"Suspected Gang Shootout!"
"A small-scale armed conflict involving supernaturals occurred in the eastern part of Darkland City last night. Fortunately, no casualties were reported."
"What's that supposed to mean? Did the Sunwatchers and Harrison Rivers start fighting?"
He checked his quest log. The progress had jumped from 16% to 43%, but the next stage of the quest still hadn't triggered. Zhou Ning decided he'd ask Sherlock about it later.
After breakfast, Zhou Ning was busy the entire morning. He first issued daily tasks remotely to XB and Jinse, then headed to the Trade District. At several engineering and alchemy shops, he spent 1,200 Vecktas on various materials, research tools, and equipment in preparation for establishing his lab. He even managed to purchase some of the rarer apparatuses from a few major retailers.
As for creating a new Devil Fruit, aside from the Starlight Reagent, most of the required herbs were also rare.
To gather those, Zhou Ning burned through nearly another 900 Vecktas—money was flowing out like water.
After having the items delivered to 117 Gibbon Street, Zhou Ning didn't linger. He hired a horse-drawn cab straight to the steam train station northeast of Darkland.
Although West Lin Town was less than six kilometers away in a straight line, there was a Weather Tide between them—an ancient battlefield from the War of the Gods. Due to violent elemental flux, the weather inside was wildly unstable, and it was infested with various elemental and supernatural creatures. In short, it was incredibly dangerous.
So, they had to take a long detour to the southeast. The steam train ride would take almost two hours. Tickets weren't too expensive—25 Roshens for first class, and just 10 Roshens for second class, though the latter could mean standing room only.
For players, the fare wasn't the problem—what got in the way was that buying a ticket required either a residence permit or an identity plate, both of which most players lacked. You had to complete a bunch of starter quests in the newbie village to get a residence permit.
That was one of Apocalypse's ways of limiting players.
Zhou Ning didn't mind the cost and bought a first-class ticket without hesitation, boarding the train to West Lin Town. He had ridden the steam train in-game in his past life and hadn't thought much of it. But now, seeing this massive steam beast—something his alternate-world self had helped design—felt oddly surreal.
To his surprise, the train was packed. It was a route heading toward the southwestern port of Temple Harbor, with a stop at West Lin Town. Most of the passengers were well-dressed nobles or merchants.
"…Senior Wayne?"
To Zhou Ning's surprise, as soon as he entered the carriage, he ran into someone he knew—tall, long legs as pale as porcelain, wearing a black Bryston-style skirt, and quite pretty. It was none other than Rosie Lily, whom he hadn't seen in nearly half a month.
She was accompanied by several alchemy underclassmen, all carrying large suitcases and now glancing in his direction.
"It's me. You're all headed…?" Zhou Ning blinked, genuinely surprised by the coincidence.
"School trip," Rosie said, her eyes glinting. "An expedition into the Weather Tide—participation is worth two credits. Are you going too, Senior Wayne?"
Zhou Ning suddenly recalled—Professor Weasley had mentioned this expedition about a month ago, and he had even made a batch of Intelligence Potions for it.
Just then, a system prompt appeared on his interface:
[You have triggered D-rank quest: "Join the Expedition." Accept?]
"Decline."
Zhou Ning shook his head. "No, I've got something else to do."
Although he was interested in exploring the Weather Tide, without a top-tier meteorologist, success was unlikely, and it would be a major time sink. Even if the school found something, he'd probably be left out. His current priority was farming players—no need to get swept up in this side quest.
"Oh…" Rosie murmured, nodding a little glumly. Then she looked up. "Want a red bean pastry?"
"Yes!" Same familiar vibe, same familiar taste. After chatting with Rosie for a bit, Zhou Ning found his seat and sat down, soon hearing giggles and Rosie's flustered protests from behind.
A moment later, with a loud whoo! from the whistle, the steam train slowly began to move.
Not long after, the train—pulling sixteen cars—gradually came to a stop. Zhou Ning adjusted his black silk top hat and stepped onto the platform at the north station of West Lin Town.
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