6: Chapter 6 Black Market Procurement, Lin Xiao's Collapse

The air in the underground black market was completely different from the surface.

It was a place of cramped, narrow alleyways, shelves piled high with miscellaneous goods, and a complex odor mixed with the stench of rare mineral powders and monster blood. The magical lamps embedded on both sides of the walls cast a dim light, stretching everyone's shadows into thin, distorted shapes.

Su Bai followed Lin Xiao through the basement, taking the opportunity to pull up the system interface.

More accurately, he pulled up the detailed description of the [Concept Construction] skill.

Ever since the system awakened, he hadn't had the chance to study it carefully. After all, he was first shocked by Kyubey's absurd settings, then exhausted by the mixed doubles of Zhao Dahai and Lin Xiao, and then Lin Xiao transferred fifty thousand yuan to drag him out of the school gate.

Until this moment, walking on the way to the black market, he finally had time to bring up those lines of explanatory text in the depths of his consciousness and read them word for word.

Then, his back felt a little cold.

[Concept Construction] was not a brainless magic for "turning waste into treasure."

Its true mechanism was divided into three layers. The first layer, Concept Extraction—extracting energy and information from materials that fit the target concept.

This layer determined the lower limit of the card. The better the materials fit, the purer the concept energy extracted.

The second layer, Concept Strengthening—compressing and amplifying the extracted concept energy.

This layer required the material itself to possess sufficiently high energy density as fuel.

The third layer, Concept Conversion—precisely converting the strengthened concept energy into card functional modules. This layer had the highest requirement for the "concept fit" of the materials.

In other words, making a Kyubey with cotton and glass beads from a dollar store was theoretically possible.

But the Kyubey made that way would have almost zero energy density and pitifully low concept fit. It would probably fall apart on the test bench before it could even fire a light cannon.

It would turn into a literal ragdoll that could do nothing but smile.

The system's [Concept Construction] was not alchemy that turned trash into gold, but an amplifier.

An amplifier could amplify a weak signal until it was deafening, but if the input signal itself was zero... zero multiplied by any multiple was still zero.

The more precious and energy-rich the material, the more advanced and solid the conceptual rules converted would be.

Su Bai translated this passage into human language in his mind: If you want to make a real SSS-rank Kyubey, you can't save a single cent that should be spent.

Then he looked at his balance. Fifty thousand and fifty yuan. The fifty thousand Lin Xiao transferred, plus the fifty he originally had.

Forty-seven thousand...

Should be enough, right?

However, these few materials were indeed interesting.

Phantom Demon's resentment crystal—carrying the "distortion of deception and desire," it was the core foundation of the Kyubey contract concept.

Abyssal Dream-Weaving Spider's silk—corresponding to the "shell of an immortal body," spider silk was naturally the closest material to "indestructible soft restraint" in the natural world.

formless spirit sand—the base of the soul gem, the top-tier material for soul-type cards in this world.

Every material precisely corresponded to a facet of the Kyubey concept. To a certain extent, these were indeed materials that could greatly restore the creature known as "Kyubey."

However, Su Bai was a bit curious. Although he had the system, he didn't understand card creation at all. After all, it had only been a few hours since he transmigrated. Even if he had some scattered memories in his head, making him create a card seemed impossible, right?

Thinking this, Su Bai looked carefully at the required materials for the Kyubey Card again. After seeing what was behind them, he was suddenly stunned.

"So that's how it is..."

Su Bai muttered.

At this moment, Lin Xiao stopped in front of a shop door hanging with a black curtain.

"The boss of this shop is surnamed Qian; he owed my dad a favor before." She looked back at Su Bai. "Don't talk nonsense after going in. The black market has the black market's rules. Also—don't show that expression right now."

"What expression?"

"The expression like you're balancing accounts. Put it away."

Su Bai pressed the corners of his mouth down with an expressionless face.

The air inside the shop was filled with a mixed scent of sulfur and mud after rain.

The boss was a thin, small middle-aged man with lenses as thick as beer bottle bottoms. He raised his head from behind the counter, revealing a smile that was neither warm nor cold.

"Miss Lin. A rare guest. What do you need this time?"

"Not me." Lin Xiao stepped aside. "It's him."

The boss's gaze turned to Su Bai, sizing him up for a few seconds. Those eyes narrowed behind the thick lenses, like a butcher estimating how much meat a head of livestock could provide.

"Phantom Demon resentment crystal. Abyssal Dream-Weaving Spider silk. formless spirit sand." Su Bai directly reported the three items.

The boss's eyebrows raised. He took out a magic-sealing box from the cabinet and opened the lid.

Scattered in the box were a dozen crystal fragments of various sizes. At the core of each piece, a cluster of ghostly blue light flickered rhythmically.

Su Bai squatted down. The system interface automatically popped up a prompt—Energy concentration is sixty-two percent of a complete crystal, concept fit is nearly ninety percent. Judged as usable for card creation.

"Fragments. The complete ones were long ago collected by the guild." The boss said, "Eight hundred per gram."

Fragments? Fragments were cheaper than the estimated price, but this was the standard lowest configuration.

Su Bai hadn't forgotten the system description he just saw; the more precious the material, the more advanced the conceptual rules converted.

The flawed fragments only had sixty percent energy concentration. The magic conductivity of the inactivated spider silk dropped by twenty percent. The formless spirit sand was standard quality, but only the minimum dosage.

If he used the lowest configuration for everything, the Kyubey Card might pass, but could it reach SSS? Su Bai gave a pessimistic judgment in his heart.

"Are there any better ones?" Su Bai asked.

The boss looked at him, then at Lin Xiao.

"I don't have a complete Phantom Demon crystal. But I have a fragment with eighty percent energy concentration, one size larger than these—three thousand. Do you want it?"

"I want it."

"Spider silk... I have live ones too. But you have to sign a disclaimer. In case it crawls into your ear while you're sleeping—"

"No need. Inactivated is fine. But are there any with better quality?"

"I have a piece of Abyssal Dream-Weaving Spider King silk. Inactivated, the magic conductivity drops less than the ordinary ones, only by eight percent. Five thousand per strand. Do you want it?"

"I want it."

"formless spirit sand—you want good ones? I have them. Third-order purified, the soul-carrying capacity is one and a half times higher than the standard version. Three thousand eight hundred per gram. How many grams do you want?"

"Five grams."

Lin Xiao coughed from the side.

Su Bai ignored her. He quickly recalculated in his mind. Phantom Demon crystal fragment high-quality version three thousand, Spider King silk five thousand, high-order formless spirit sand five grams nineteen thousand.

Adding stabilizers and other auxiliary materials, it totaled about forty-five thousand, which was even cheaper than the forty-seven thousand he had expected. It seemed pretty good.

Balance fifty thousand and fifty. After spending it, five thousand would remain; that should be enough to buy "that thing."

"Pack it all up." Su Bai said.

"Alright!"

The boss moved nimbly, and soon Su Bai received three boxes of different sizes. "Forty-five thousand total."

Su Bai transferred the money decisively.

Lin Xiao didn't say anything from the side; after all, she was the one who told Su Bai to spend the money. At this moment, she was just looking at Su Bai's materials, lost in thought.

Lin Xiao was not a poor student, she just had poor hands-on ability. Besides, her theoretical grades were very strong.

However, even so, looking at Su Bai's materials, she didn't know how to refine them to make a card that could "grant wishes." Wasn't this nonsense?

However, she didn't dwell on it, just smiled and said, "Forty-five thousand, two thousand cheaper than the market price, not bad, right?"

"I still need to buy a few books."

Su Bai interrupted.

In this world, because of card creation, the price of books was much more expensive than on the Earth he came from. Most started at a few hundred. Su Bai wasn't sure how much the books he wanted would cost.

"Oh, they're just ahead."

Lin Xiao looked across the street. That bookstore had a huge wooden sign hanging openly, which read "Ancient and Modern Card Creation Theory Classics Specialty Store."

Through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, one could see rows of bookshelves reaching the ceiling inside.

"What exactly are you buying?" Lin Xiao said. "It's quite complete in there."

"Looking for some theory books." Su Bai said casually, he certainly couldn't tell the truth.

Because just a short while ago, he discovered...

He knew nothing about card creation!

But fortunately, Concept Conversion seemed to be able to help him quickly understand knowledge, so he had to get a few high-level theory books to directly absorb experience and convert it.

It was just that he couldn't tell Lin Xiao this directly, so Su Bai had to be vague.

Little did he know, Lin Xiao blinked, then quickly reacted, looking at Su Bai in silence.

She reached a conclusion:

Su Bai was pretending!

It was simple; a student who hadn't even reached the first-order Card Creator level was studying theory?

He should figure out the work in his hands first!

However, she didn't expose him, just became even more silent.

...

The air inside the bookstore was filled with the smell of old paper and ink.

The clerk was about to speak when he saw Su Bai bypass the beginner textbook area and walk towards the stairs in the deepest part.

"That way is—" the clerk wanted to stop him.

"Let him go."

Lin Xiao followed behind, her tone carrying a weariness of "I want to see what kind of trouble he can cause."

Su Bai walked up the stairs floor by floor. The first floor was for beginners, the second for advanced theory, the third for expert level, and the fourth—the fourth floor had dim lighting and sparse bookshelves.

The label read "High-Level Theory · Research Level."

His fingers slid across rows of thick book spines, and three books were pulled out from the bookshelf one by one.

High-Dimensional Weapon Structure and Material Collapse Analysis. Dark gray cover.

Non-linear Spatial Geometry and Morphological Topological Evolution. Navy blue cover.

《Microscopic Spirit Particle Transition and Superconducting Magic Fluid Theory》. Black cover, the title page printed with "Recommended for reading by Card Creators above the fifth order under the guidance of a mentor."

That's right, these three books were exactly what the system strongly recommended, the basic knowledge for Card Creators! They were also the three theory books Su Bai saw in the required materials for the Kyubey Card. Combining these three would allow Su Bai to directly enter the production process.

Although he didn't understand why the basic knowledge of card creation would be these three books, it didn't matter, he should be able to understand them!

...Probably?

Su Bai walked down the stairs holding the three books. The clerk's expression was like seeing a child holding a collection of postgraduate entrance exam questions at the entrance of a kindergarten.

Lin Xiao was also stunned!

Her gaze swept back and forth over the spines of the three books twice, the first time to confirm the book titles, the second time to confirm she hadn't misread.

These three books...

Is this guy serious?

This kind of thing is simply not something a first-order Card Creator can use!

It was completely cutting-edge theory, so cutting-edge that even she, a Card Creator who claimed to be invincible in theory, couldn't understand it. And yet, Su Bai came out holding these three books?

"One thousand eight hundred yuan." The clerk's voice carried a hint of uncertainty.

Su Bai paid decisively, then picked up the three books and turned to face Lin Xiao.

Lin Xiao's expression could no longer be described as "complex." Besides silence, it was still silence.

The look in her eyes towards Su Bai had changed from the initial "interesting," to the "incomprehensible" when buying materials, and now it had turned into looking at a "fool."

She felt...

She had been fooled by Su Bai!

This guy was either mentally ill or a prodigy!

Which elementary school student would suddenly go buy a book on "Algebraic Geometry Applications" or "Engineering Cybernetics" to study when doing arithmetic problems?

You can't even use it!

"You this..."

Even with Lin Xiao's composure, she couldn't help but speak up at this moment, but because of her upbringing as a rich young lady, she didn't go crazy on the spot.

Su Bai said: "It cost a total of forty-six thousand eight hundred, two hundred less than I imagined, within expectations."

Is that what I'm asking!!

Lin Xiao felt completely powerless, so she had to bite the bullet and ask: "I meant, are these theories... going to be used in card creation?"

"Pretty much."

Su Bai naturally didn't know the deeper meaning of Lin Xiao's words, so he nodded immediately. "Anyway, you should be able to see the results in three days. I'm going first."

Now that the things were prepared, Su Bai was also curious about what quality of card he could make. Honestly, this world was still very novel to him, and all kinds of strange things were unheard of in his previous life. His curiosity was gradually expanding.

Seeing Lin Xiao nod, he turned and left without hesitation.

And after he left...

Lin Xiao, standing in place, let out a sharp, ear-piercing scream in her heart.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

"I've been tricked!!!!!!!!!"

Tricked!

Definitely been tricked!

This Su Bai doesn't understand any card creation theory!

He doesn't even know that to make a first-order card, what is needed is not some messy theory, but an "Introductory Guide to Primary Card Creation"!

Instead, what did this guy go to study?

And High-Dimensional Weapon Structure and Material Collapse Analysis?

And Non-linear Spatial Geometry and Morphological Topological Evolution?

And 《Microscopic Spirit Particle Transition and Superconducting Magic Fluid Theory》?

Heh, heh, heh, hahahaha!

Lin Xiao, with chaos in her mind, finally picked up her phone and posted on WeChat Moments.

"I am such a fool, really..."