(When I got up this morning to shave, I accidentally cut myself on my face. Humorously, I posted on my feed that seeing red in the morning might be a sign of success. Unexpectedly, during a quick jog in the evening, my old friend "Her Smile is Beautiful" gifted me ten thousand Qidian Coins. I'd also like to thank the lovely Yiqiao Qingyu, my comrades from Group 2, Urban White-collar, Carefree Wanderer 1, Zui Xiaoxi, my old friend Shuang Leiliang, feed friend Feng's Xiluoxuan, and my friend Great Big Balloon for their generous support. A big thanks to everyone clicking, recommending, collecting this book, and leaving supportive comments. With you all around, Dan Tuo feels truly blessed~~)
Guding counted three times; the account balance was a seven-digit number.
"Over three million, did you steal it?" Guding reacted after a while.
"I just used a little trick, how can it be considered stealing?" Sea Emperor's voice carried an air of disdain. "Remember the woman who feigned death yesterday? When she faked her own death, I took the chance to acquire not just her storage space, but also her various accounts, including financial ones."
"Hehe, three million, that's enough to buy an Eagle chicks," Guding thought immediately of the small starship of his dreams.
"Hey, this money isn't for you to squander. Purchasing Genetic Potions requires a lot of materials, and a few million won't last long. If you want to make more money, become a Pharmacist!" Sea Emperor's voice came again. "This is the tutorial and formula for the F-grade Cell Enhancer. Take a good look. Buy twenty sets of materials from the formula; the failure rate for beginners is quite high. Your school happens to have a laboratory, and rental fees there are more than half lower than outside. This type of potion only needs basic equipment for preparation. The rest is buying materials."
As Sea Emperor spoke, he transmitted a file into Guding's brain. This method of directly storing data in the brain's memory area was something a Smart Watch couldn't do.
The human brain is an extremely sophisticated instrument. Even though human development had reached this stage, its mysteries hadn't been fully explored. Directly transferring data to the memory area—such experiments had been done before. The initial results were promising, but all participants died within ten years after the experiments, with no exceptions. The cause of death was always mutative brain cancer. The cancer cells appeared without any warning, developing to the fourth stage in just one or two days, then the tumor burst.
"Hey, there won't be a problem storing it like this, right?" Having heard various rumors, Guding was slightly worried.
Sensing Guding's concern, Sea Emperor explained, "Relax, the information library has detailed data on the brain. My direct storage operation won't be a problem. In fact, as long as this kind of storage isn't performed very frequently, or if massive data isn't stored all at once, my method is quite safe. Most importantly, once a Super Intelligence recognizes an owner, the possibility of changing owners is almost zero. You should be aware of this. Statistically speaking, the probability of me causing your death is nearly a million times lower than the chance of you succeeding in a suicide."
Guding shook his head helplessly, speechless at Sea Emperor's absurd comparison. But he had also heard that Heavenly Net once had an owner; when her owner died, she never attached herself to another human being for millions of years. The loyalty of Super Intelligence was unquestionable.
Guding went through the formula. The material unit prices were almost transparent. Guding calculated that with his previous savings, his entire fortune was only enough to buy two sets of materials.
"Indeed, being a Pharmacist is a money-burning occupation..." Guding couldn't help but sigh before he started watching the tutorial.
The tutorials were all holographic videos, looking exactly like being on-site. Every step was narrated in great detail, including some blending techniques and points to note, without any omissions.
Guding watched twelve tutorials for making Cell Enhancers in a row. Although it was the same potion, different Pharmacists had slightly varied preparation methods, each with their unique style. After watching the tutorials, Guding remained silent for a while, then suddenly asked, "Sea Emperor, do you have data on pharmacological fundamentals and crafting methods?"
"I knew you would ask; I prepared them for you long ago." After a moment, Sea Emperor injected this data into Guding's memory area as well.
Guding flipped through the pharmacological fundamentals page by page in his brain, examining them carefully. Only after confirming nothing was missed did he turn to look at the crafting methods.
Once he finished flipping through, he arrived at the entrance of the school's laboratory building.
"Hello, I'd like to rent a private mixing room," Guding found the building's administrator.
The administrator glanced at Guding, a hint of disdain in their expression, "The three private mixing rooms have already been rented today. If you want to use one, go to the public area; that's still free. For Pharmaceutical Materials, go to the second-floor potion warehouse."
Guding wasn't too bothered by the person's attitude, merely frowned a little when hearing the private rooms were occupied, then headed to the second floor.
"Tiger Gall Herb, Crow Tongue Flower, Red Python Marrow... I want twenty sets of these materials."
"Twenty sets? These materials, combined, cost 112 Star Coins per set. Are you sure you want twenty?" The warehouse manager was slightly surprised. If a schoolteacher was buying so many materials, he could understand, but a student might not have the financial resources to cover it.
"Yes, twenty sets!" Guding nodded.
It wasn't until the warehouse manager prepared the twenty sets and Guding made the transfer that the manager believed Guding wasn't joking.
With the potions in hand, Guding went to the third floor's public mixing hall.
The hall was empty, all thirty workstations spotless and clean.
Guding casually chose one, took out a potion, and arranged it in order on the workstation.
The basic steps in potion concoction were extraction, distillation, ratio adjustment, and fusion.
Extraction meant separating the parts of the materials needing processing and initially preparing them, extracting the liquid essence. The purpose of distillation was to remove impurities and release the medicinal properties through heating. The completion level of extraction and distillation affected the final potion quality. The third step, ratio adjustment, involved proportioning the processed materials according to their medicinal properties. An error in this step would likely result in waste products. The final step, fusion, varied in difficulty; simple potions needed just the first few steps to be adequately done. In contrast, some required special techniques for completion. The degree of fusion also affected the final potion quality.
Guding carefully processed each material, following the tutorial to complete the extraction process smoothly, even keeping the time to an exact fraction. The distillation bottles had already been heated, and he placed the liquid essence in different distillation bottles. This step didn't require precise timing but depended on the color changes in the bottle. Even with the same materials, the distillation time varied based on extraction completeness and quantity. Guding was vigilant, his eyes fixed on the distillation bottles. After a few minutes, one bottle began changing color. Guding quickly removed that distillation bottle, and almost simultaneously, the other three began changing color.
"Damn!" Guding grabbed two distillation bottles with both hands while the last one changed from its original color in an instant. By the time Guding took it down, it had shifted from sky blue to dark blue. "This one went overboard on distillation, causing some medicinal properties to evaporate... but it's still usable."
After finishing distillation, Guding proceeded with ratio adjustment. Compared to other steps, Guding found this one the simplest, as he had already obtained the optimal proportion from the tutorial, following it exactly. After completing the proportions, he poured a tube of potion into the Fusion Cup according to the order and time differences described in the tutorial.
Ordinarily, preparing a Cell Enhancer only required it to be left to fuse. However, in the twelve methods Guding watched, each pharmacist used a unique technique to accelerate fusion. Guding picked up the Fusion Cup and began the simplest technique—clockwise shaking. After three circles, he switched to counterclockwise shaking. Repeatedly, the originally colorful solution in the cup gradually turned milky white. After about three minutes, the Enhancer was entirely white. Under natural conditions, it would have taken at least an hour to complete fusion.
"Hehe, successfully crafted—my first Cell Enhancer." Guding was somewhat excited. "Sea Emperor, despite some errors, judging by the color, at least it's a Good product, right?"
"I didn't expect you to show some talent. This bottle of F-grade Cell Enhancer is of Excellent Quality." Sea Emperor recognized the quality of the vial with a glance.
Potions within the same grade vary in quality levels, namely Poor, Defective, Standard, Good, High-quality, Excellent, and Perfect, from low to high.
Among them, a Standard potion's effect was the benchmark. An F-grade Standard Cell Enhancer could increase a Level 1 Genetic Body's Cell Comprehensive Index by 2 points. Good products could increase it by 3 points, High-quality by 4 points, and Excellent Rank by 5 points. Perfect Rank could increase it by 7 points.
So even the same Cell Enhancers differ in price. Generally, a Standard item has a base price, with Good products commanding double that price, High-quality at least five times, Excellent Rank at least eight to ten times more, and Perfect Quality starting at twenty times higher.
An F-grade Standard Cell Enhancer retails for 1200 Star Coins, while the one in Guding's hand could easily sell for over 10000 Star Coins.
Guding packed the potion, stored it in his Storage Space, and began preparing the second vial. But what he didn't realize was a camera in the corner of the public mixing room's ceiling...
(Here's an added note: Smiling asked me why the book's signing status hasn't changed. I didn't mention it before as I didn't think it was a big deal. We agreed with the editor to sign the contract when reaching 20,000 words. So tomorrow, the contract will be formally signed at 20,000 words. Once it arrives at Qidian's editorial department, it'll probably be next Monday at the earliest. Internal processing at Qidian might add another day or two, but the signing status will certainly change next week.)