9: Chapter 9 The Bone Ledger

Yan Zheng had already locked the three locks on the back door of the Antique Shop.

The blinds were drawn tight, and the light in the Underground Room was switched on.

He sat down against the base of the wall, patted the rust dust off his palms, and waved toward the empty space in front of him.

"Come out. Tonight's work is done; it's time to settle the accounts."

The Skeleton Soldier silently emerged from the shadows beneath his feet, its white bones gleaming with a cold light under the dim yellow lamp, the phosphorus fire in its eye sockets burning quietly.

Yan Zheng reached out and patted its tibia, as if checking the wear and tear of a transport tool.

"You made six trips tonight. Are your joints loose?"

The Skeleton Soldier tilted its skull.

Yan Zheng: (ꉺᗜꉺ)

"Alright, I'll take that as a no."

He opened the system panel, and the grayish-green text of the warehouse inventory floated up in the dim Underground Room.

He read it out line by line.

"Seven sets of ordinary human bone materials, four portions of muscle fiber materials, two portions of nerve tissue materials, and one portion of special material, incomplete Healing Factor D+."

His finger slid from the top of the list to the bottom, like flipping through a newly received stock invoice.

"Seven sets of bones, four bundles of muscle, two packages of nerves, plus a discounted tube of Healing Factor."

"This is all of tonight's assets."

He raised a finger, gesturing toward the Skeleton Soldier.

"Theoretically, I could assemble six more like you, but assembling them would be pointless. Do you know why?"

The Skeleton Soldier remained silent.

"Because my brain capacity is not enough."

Yan Zheng tapped his temples.

"With eight points of Mental Power, controlling one consumes zero point five per hour, two is one point zero, which bottoms out in eight hours. What if I use three? I wouldn't even be able to walk straight."

Yan Zheng: (´꒳`)

"So the current limit is two. Any more would be a waste. Let's save the materials and wait until my Mental Power goes up."

He flipped down a page on the panel to the 'Upgrade Path' section, cleared his throat, and read it word by word to the Skeleton Soldier.

"By controlling Undead Creations in actual combat, the host's mental strength can be slowly increased. Each effective battle grants a tiny amount of Mental Power experience points. Once the accumulated experience points reach the threshold, the maximum Mental Power limit will automatically increase."

After reading, he looked up at the Skeleton Soldier.

"Do you understand? Translated into plain English, it's just four words."

"Fight more, grow more."

Yan Zheng stood up from the base of the wall and paced back and forth in the Underground Room, which was less than ten square meters.

"In a place like Hells Kitchen, there isn't much of other things, but there are plenty of thugs. Every night, people are robbing, dealing drugs, and fighting on the streets. I'll send you guys out on night patrol and clean up anyone who's alone. Winning fights increases my Mental Power, and if the opponent unfortunately passes away afterward, we can collect the body along the way, adding another set of materials."

He turned to face the Skeleton Soldier, raising his index and middle fingers as if making a list.

"When Mental Power increases, the number of units I can control increases. With more units, the patrol coverage area becomes larger. With a larger coverage area, we'll encounter more thugs, fight more battles, and collect more bodies."

"A cycle, a perfect positive cycle."

Yan Zheng: (✦ᴗ✦)

"As my Employee Number One, you should be proud of this business model."

The Skeleton Soldier's phosphorus fire flickered.

"Alright, we've gone through the books. But there's one more thing you need to see."

Yan Zheng reopened the panel and dragged the warehouse inventory to the very bottom with his finger.

A gray blueprint sat quietly at the end of the list, its border wrapped in a dark red chain pattern, looking like something that shouldn't be touched lightly.

He clicked on the blueprint and read the description on it.

"Stitched Soldier, locked state. Unlock condition: Collect at least two different types of biological materials. Currently only possessing the single human type."

"By fusing and piecing together materials from different races or species, you can create strengthened undead that transcend the limits of the original materials. The quality depends on the diversity of the fused materials and their genetic compatibility."

Yan Zheng: (⊙ᗜ⊙)

His finger paused on the words 'different types'.

"Different types. In other words, just human bones aren't enough. What about Mutants?"

He flipped back to the warehouse page, found the Healing Factor label extracted from that Bone-Spur Mutant in the alley earlier, and took a look at the classification.

"Human, parenthesis, Mutant subtype."

Yan Zheng: (눈꒳눈)

"Mutants are still categorized under the broader human category, only counted as a subtype, not an independent type."

"So to unlock this blueprint, what I need is truly non-human material."

"Aliens? The Chitauri invasion is still several years away, too late. magic creatures? I can't even touch the edges of Kamar-Taj's things right now."

"But..."

He dug out a stack of old newspapers from a cardboard box in the corner of the Underground Room, pulled one out, and placed his fingertip on a tiny, column-sized news piece in the local section.

"Last month, unusually large claw marks were discovered during the sewer expansion project in the Western District of Hells Kitchen. The construction crew evacuated urgently, and the project has been suspended until now."

"Claw marks, large ones, in the sewer."

"Beneath this city, there is something non-human living there."

Yan Zheng folded the newspaper and slowly stuffed it into his pocket.

"No matter what it is, as long as the system determines it's not human, its bones can help me open this lock."

He stood up and glanced at the Skeleton Soldier in front of him and the gray, locked blueprint.

"But there's no rush. I need to train my Mental Power first before exploring the underground pipes. Venturing into unknown areas rashly, I wouldn't even have the capital to protect myself."

"Step one: Assemble the second Skeleton Soldier."

He issued a command to the panel.

"Assemble, Skeleton Soldier, use the second set of bone materials."

Dark green mist seeped out from the ground, condensing and churning beside the first Skeleton Soldier. Ten seconds later, a second skeletal body rose within the phosphorus fire.

Yan Zheng took a step back, sizing up the two skeletons standing side by side.

"Very good. But before going out, there's a technical problem that needs to be solved."

He bent down and lifted the knee joint of one Skeleton Soldier, flexing it a couple of times. The bone connection made a faint clicking sound.

"It was this exact sound that almost got you discovered by Mr. Matt Murdock tonight."

"Tomorrow during the day, I'll buy some lubricant and soft leather to wrap a silencer pad around every one of your joints."

Yan Zheng: (ꈍ∀ꈍ)

"Dead men don't fear pain or fatigue, they don't need to eat or sleep. Their only flaw is making noise when walking. Fix this flaw, and you will be the most perfect night patrol units."

He turned and walked up the steps, and the light in the Underground Room went out behind him.

Halfway up, he paused, looking back at the four clusters of faint phosphorus fire in the darkness.

"Step two: train my Mental Power. Step three: find non-human materials."

"But before that, I'm quite curious about one thing."

The sound of footsteps gradually faded in the narrow stairwell, the final sentence carrying the curiosity of The Collector browsing through a catalog of rare books.

"Just what kind of good things are hidden in the sewers of Hells Kitchen?"