57: Alchemy in the Ruins

Late at night, the clamor of the mining area settled into a deathly silent hum.

Chen Feng didn't bring anyone with him, arriving alone at Lao Mo's single dormitory located on the edge of Sector C. The door wasn't locked, so he pushed it open and entered.

Inside the room, the smells of engine oil and metallic rust mingled together. A lean figure sat at a workbench, tirelessly wiping a wrench with an oily rag.

Hearing the movement, Lao Mo didn't even look up. His voice was as hoarse as rusted gears: "I'm just a repairman; I have no interest in your fighting and killing."

There was an all-seeing indifference in his words, as if he had already anticipated Chen Feng's purpose.

Chen Feng wasn't surprised, nor did he argue. He simply walked to the workbench and gently placed a palm-sized metal creation, its structure so precise it was dizzying, onto the table.

"I've heard that technicians of the Old Era could understand the language of machines." Chen Feng's voice was calm. "This little thing seems to be 'sick.' Are you willing to listen to its 'heartbeat'?"

Lao Mo's wiping motion paused for a split second.

His gaze finally shifted from the wrench he had polished to a shine to the precision object he had never seen before. It was a "Multi-Dimensional Spatial Instrument Calibrator," a device from a high-dimensional civilization whose basic functions far exceeded the understanding of Ashen Earth Star.

Like iron filings drawn to a magnet, he slowly set down the wrench in his hand.

"What is this?" he asked, a hint of emotion surfacing in his voice for the first time.

"A toy," Chen Feng replied nonchalantly. "A broken toy."

Lao Mo said nothing more. He reached out with hands covered in calluses and scars, carefully cradling the "toy." His expression changed instantly.

It was a transition from ash-like indifference to an immediate spark of obsession, which then evolved into a near-manic fervor.

He picked up the tools on the table, his movements as fluid as if they were extensions of his own body. He disassembled, analyzed, and used a crude multimeter to measure energy circuits he couldn't possibly comprehend. He began muttering under his breath, all in technical jargon that Chen Feng couldn't understand.

Chen Feng didn't disturb him, merely standing quietly to the side and watching.

Half an hour later.

"Found it," Lao Mo spat out two words, his eyes flashing with excitement. "A redundant fuse for a secondary energy circulation node blew. A design flaw. No wonder it wasn't in the manual."

He dug out a component smaller than a grain of rice from a pile of scrap metal and, using a pair of tweezers, completed the soldering with almost artistic finesse.

An indicator light on the instrument turned from red to green.

He had fixed it. Using the crudest tools on this planet, he had repaired a malfunction that even the system manual couldn't explain.

Lao Mo looked up, an incredible spirit erupting from his cloudy eyes for the first time. He looked directly at Chen Feng: "What do you want me to do?"

Chen Feng didn't answer, simply turning to walk out the door: "Follow me."

The two crossed the silent mining area and reached the depths of a long-abandoned maintenance tunnel guarded by Reno's trusted aides.

At the end of the tunnel was a massive hollowed-out space—Lao Mo's own secret workshop. It was piled high with parts, semi-finished products, and self-made tools he had collected from every corner over decades, resembling the lair of a metallic beast.

In the center of the lair, the hundred brand-new weapons disguised as mining tools lay quietly on workbenches, radiating a cold killing intent.

"My god..." Lao Mo rushed over, stroking the weapons as if they were long-lost lovers.

"G-3 Type Geological Crushing Hammer... PX-7 Type High-Energy Cutting Torch..." He called out the names one by one, his eyes filled with unconcealable ecstasy. "I've only seen the blueprints for these things in Old Era records!"

But soon, the ecstasy turned into professional pickiness.

"No, this won't do at all!" He picked up a cutting torch and quickly pointed out the problems. "The power interfaces are all over the place; they're completely incompatible with our standard energy packs! The control logic is anti-human, and the recoil curve is totally unsuitable for a miner's physique. If you actually took this to a battlefield, one shot would dislocate your shoulder!"

"Can you fix it?" Chen Feng asked.

"Fix it?" Lao Mo laughed maniacally, as if he had heard a joke. "This isn't fixing; this is art!"

He grabbed a cutting torch at random, picked up his tools, and began his own brand of "alchemy."

"Look here!" Amidst the clanging sounds, Lao Mo seemed like a different person. No longer taciturn, he began excitedly explaining to Chen Feng, "By replacing the original energy core with capacitor sets from scrapped mining robots, we can not only unify the interface but also achieve instantaneous power overload!"

"And the recoil! Strip the damping components from the hydraulic pipes and turn them into external stabilizers. Simple, crude, but effective!"

His talent was fully revealed at this moment. Those weapons from different civilizations with vastly different design logics were rapidly disassembled and reassembled in his hands, transforming into killing machines better suited for this land.

Ten minutes later, the first modified "Cutting Torch" rifle was handed to Chen Feng.

Its appearance had become rougher, with clearly visible welding marks, making it look more like a common tool found anywhere in the mining area. But when Chen Feng held it, it felt incredibly natural, as if it had been custom-made for him.

"The energy is unified to use standard energy packs, the effective range is increased by 15%, and the recoil is reduced by 30%." Lao Mo's face bore a look of near-manic pride. "Give me three days, and I can modify twenty of them."

"Not enough," Chen Feng shook his head.

"Then give me full clearance and two more people to assist!" Fire burned in Lao Mo's eyes. "I can keep this production line running twenty-four hours a day! Three days, one hundred units!"

Chen Feng looked at this genius completely immersed in the world of technology, knowing he had found the final and most critical piece of the puzzle to ignite the fire of rebellion.

"Fine," he said in a low voice. "Everything you need, Reno will have delivered to you."

He turned around and spoke to the shadows behind him: "The next step is to pass the whispers of this steel into the hands of every warrior."