Chapter 473: Release

Chapter 473: Release

How smart? It was probably about one-third as smart as the robot protagonist from the movie “I, Robot” that Zheng Yichen had seen before he traveled here… Uh, well, maybe closer to the level of the latest model robots. Perhaps even higher, since they didn’t have anything like the Three Laws of Robotics. Zheng Yichen didn’t ask for much—just reaching the intelligence level of that robot protagonist would be enough.

That one could be said to be almost exactly like a human in every way except appearance!

If it could reach that level, many things in the underground base wouldn’t require Zheng Yichen or Loris to personally direct anymore. Pettyng the alchemical puppet on the shoulder, Zheng Yichen left the workshop. What was he going to do?

It was already dark out—time to rest!

Anyway, the matter of the derivative witch had already been exposed. Let the Sanctuary Church worry about the rest. As for the remaining issues, what did they have to do with him?… Since the dragons were already protected, even if the derivative witch really wanted to cause trouble, she’d probably just walk right into a trap, right?

Those three dragons were fine, so the Dragon Clan likely wouldn’t send any other dragons here to investigate. In that case, what was there to worry about? His location wasn’t exposed anyway—could anyone force him to reveal it? You’d need clues to track someone down. Trying to find him through an alchemical avatar?

Zheng Yichen had always been wary of that! It might work on others, but with his abilities, he could ignore tracking. Contact-based tracking methods were meaningless.

So, whatever trouble the derivative witch could stir up, Zheng Yichen didn’t really care. He’d just focus on his own tasks. Speaking of which, he didn’t know what had happened to the alchemical avatar he used earlier—whether the Sanctuary Church took it or something. There were also those lost shark-head missiles; it’d be a shame to lose them.

As soon as Zheng Yichen returned to his bedroom, he saw Loris walking in holding a pillow. At that moment, he was thinking about adding some massage functions to his bed. But seeing Loris, he gave up on that idea. Forget it. What felt like a massage effect might be bearable for a dragon, but it might not be comfortable for her.

After all, there was a size difference. What felt like a slight vibration to Zheng Yichen would probably send her flying. Considering he often had a pseudo-loli sleeping with him, it was better to just forget about it. Making a chair with that function would be enough. The bed? No need, no need!

Seeing Zheng Yichen lying on the bed, Loris habitually jumped onto it. She placed the pillow she brought next to his head. Ignoring the dragon face that would look normal to dragons but scare little kids in human eyes, she glanced at his shining dragon eyes and tilted her head. “I’m going to sleep first.”

“Sleep well.”

Witches fell asleep quickly—no, or rather, people with strong mental energy fell asleep easily. Of course, this only applied if they could control that powerful mental energy. Those whose mental energy overflowed uncontrollably didn’t count. In short, if someone with strong mental energy wanted to sleep, they could literally close their eyes and doze off. Zheng Yichen could do it too. If he really wanted to sleep, he could fall asleep within ten seconds of closing his eyes!

And the sleep quality was very high. The downside of sleeping this way was that it was hard to dream. But if he slept normally, Zheng Yichen could dream easily. So, he usually didn’t use this method to sleep. When dreaming during natural sleep, Zheng Yichen could more clearly “feel” human sensations.

Zheng Yichen had always been grateful for this. When he dreamed—and it wasn’t a lucid dream—his own sense of self might become fuzzy, but at least it was based on being human! Not on dragon senses. If that ever changed one day… Zheng Yichen thought about it and decided that would be truly terrifying!

When he woke up the next morning, Loris was already awake before him. She was leaning against the wing Zheng Yichen had draped over her. Zheng Yichen twitched his mouth slightly. Thankfully, this body didn’t suddenly jerk while sleeping. Otherwise, with her small frame, she might have been flung who knows where.

Shaking his head, Zheng Yichen dismissed such negative thoughts. He glanced at the book in Loris’s hand. Surprisingly, it wasn’t anything special—just an ordinary storybook. Judging by the cover, it was a recently published edition. As for the content, her small hand happened to cover a few key words, so Zheng Yichen couldn’t make them out. Probably something about beasts?

“Going to work?” Seeing Zheng Yichen awake, Loris put down the book and asked.

“I’ll browse the forum for a bit.” Zheng Yichen shook his head, took out the Magic Weapon Summoning Book, and resumed his Earth-like morning routine: lying in bed right after waking up and scrolling through his phone for a while. Whether reading novels or something else, he always had to look at something first. Even though the Magic Weapon Forum was something he created, that didn’t stop him from keeping this habit. After all, six hours of sleep was enough every day.

He could even function perfectly fine with less sleep. There was never any need to laze in bed, nor did he feel tired from skipping naps. So, waking up an hour or two early to browse the forum or similar activities wouldn’t affect his daily tasks at all. Loris picked up the storybook she had set aside earlier and read for another half hour. Then, a crack appeared beside her hand, and she put the book back. As a witch with high self-control, she didn’t waste too much time on such things.

Before Zheng Yichen woke up, she had already been reading for a while. After that, even half an hour of lingering felt quite long to her… Not to mention she had her own things to do!

She excelled at destruction, unlike someone like Annie who could collaborate with Zheng Yichen on research. So, she could only contribute in other areas.

“Hmm.” Seeing Loris had already gotten off the bed, Zheng Yichen reluctantly put away the Magic Weapon Summoning Book. He checked the time: 6:30… Ugh, so early. He had calibrated the time based on this world. Just because he used a 24-hour clock didn’t mean this world actually had 24-hour days.

After rigorous statistics and calculations, if measured by Earth time, a day in this world was actually about… twenty-six hours. Even if there was some deviation, it wouldn’t be by much. Having longer days was fine. Back on Earth, Zheng Yichen had often wished for 48-hour days…

Arriving at his laboratory, Zheng Yichen hooked a finger and pulled a book from his personal space. He immediately began modifying it. The skin feature wasn’t finished yet. A skin feature wasn’t complicated; Zheng Yichen could finish it quickly if he wanted. The troublesome part was disassembling and reassembling things. This step had a lot of potential, but Zheng Yichen had always overlooked it. Now, thinking about it, it seemed he had wasted quite a bit of mana.

The skin feature was simply linking certain things to the Magic Weapon Contract to achieve unique identification, similar to an ID binding. So, the operation method was straightforward. As for skin designs, Zheng Yichen could create some himself. Reference material? Weren’t there plenty of cool, flashy book-style props in Earth’s games and anime?

There were plenty, right? Just copy them freely. Zheng Yichen had always done this sort of thing. Could those creators just rush over and confront him? If they could, Zheng Yichen would actually be happy. Sadly, no one could.

Besides, people in this world could also design their own skins. Zheng Yichen’s main task was to refine the rules. How popular would a small skin feature be… Oh, maybe new skins could be made for magic weapons too?

Zheng Yichen thought about it and decided against it. Basic and low-level magic weapons could have skins, but intermediate or higher-level ones shouldn’t. Those magic weapons had unique characteristics, so skins wouldn’t really work for them.

By the afternoon, Zheng Yichen had already finished the skin feature. He even included about ten sample skins, corresponding to different levels of magic weapon summoners. Why let low-level summoners use flashy, cool skins? Imagine how unbalanced the more powerful summoners would feel.

“Hmm… This one… Forget it, I’ll keep it. Consider it for nostalgia.” Zheng Yichen scratched his head while looking at a dazzling dragon skin. This world clearly didn’t have dragons like this. People who saw it would probably think it was some kind of serpentine magical beast. Even though knowing this was annoying, cultural differences were like that. In the eyes of otherworlders, dragons were like Zheng Yichen—not some kind of more “high-class” serpentine creature.

Zheng Yichen tentatively designated such skins for advanced magic weapon users and above. As for other summoners’ opinions? Screw it! If he wanted to create something nostalgic for his own comfort, they could keep their opinions to themselves. As long as he found it pleasing, that was enough. Besides, this was just one type of skin. They could also spend extra mana to customize or create their own unique “book covers.” If they didn’t like it, they could make their own.

After reviewing the rules related to skins and confirming there were no omissions, Zheng Yichen implemented the feature. He also posted a new message on the forum. Releasing such a feature right after the derivative witch incident might seem abrupt to some, but Zheng Yichen was used to it. Something similar happened during the Undying Witch incident. Having a major event overshadowing things made it easier to roll out new features. These features had staying power anyway. As for early promotion?

Times had changed. With the derivative witch incident occupying attention, the new feature’s impact would be somewhat muted. That wasn’t a bad thing at all.