Chapter 58: Robor

"What is your name?" asked Zhang Ji.

The words were translated and spoken aloud through his phone.

"Lobo!" said Lobo, standing up.

"I saved your life. How much money should you pay me?" Zhang Ji continued.

"How much do you think is fair?"

Lobo deflected the question right back to Zhang Ji.

"How much does it cost to get the best possible prosthetic limb?" asked Zhang Ji.

He pointed to his empty right leg.

Lobo had noticed this detail long ago, though previously he had assumed Zhang Ji was simply an eccentric martial artist deliberately maintaining a quirky persona.

But now, it seemed he just hadn't found the time yet to get a prosthetic installed.

From certain angles, he also appeared to be a foreigner.

Did he flee here after committing a crime?

A flurry of thoughts spun through his mind before Lobo said, "I can replace it for you. It will definitely be better than anything on the market—perhaps even more formidable than the one you were born with."

Zhang Ji looked at him with skepticism, assuming he was just bragging.

In a wretched place like this, getting a scrap metal brace installed would be the absolute limit. Better than anything on the market? Fat chance.

Yet, upon second thought, the way that store clerk had purposely recommended this clinic suggested there might actually be some substance to it.

"I was planning to go to Dean Hospital to get a replacement. Can you really do better than theirs?" asked Zhang Ji.

"The technology is different. They use genuine metal cybernetics; I am different," Lobo said. "I use a different technology—alchemy."

Hearing this, Zhang Ji's expression shifted slightly as a connection formed in his mind.

"Are you from the Kingdom of Guning?" Zhang Ji asked, staring intently at Lobo.

"Do you know me?" Lobo asked, locking eyes with Zhang Ji.

"Not personally. I just thought your accent sounded very similar."

Though he said that, Zhang Ji had already confirmed his suspicion.

Remove those glasses, add a thick beard, and this was precisely the mad alchemist he had seen in the game—Preton Borosis, the fugitive from the Royal Academy of Sciences of the Kingdom of Guning.

Was the world truly this small? Or was his luck simply that incredible?

To actually run into such a renowned NPC in a place like this.

When Zhang Ji had encountered him in the game, it was much later in the timeline—nearly twenty years from the present day.

By then, he was already an alchemy master known to every player.

There was even a special questline associated with him. Completing it granted the player a bloodline modification, bestowing the Solar God bloodline of the Guning royal family.

Zhang Ji was also familiar with his backstory.

His fanaticism for alchemical technology had driven him to excavate the royal tombs of Guning, where he exhumed the preserved physical remains of the Solar God and used those biological materials to conduct research in alchemical science.

When this act was exposed, he was immediately sentenced to execution.

However, due to various circumstances, he managed to survive with the help of his mentor and a lover, and fled the Kingdom of Guning under an assumed identity.

The name he chose for himself was Lobo.

By the time Zhang Ji met him in the game, he was already in the nation of Sesch.

Sesch was the birthplace of the bloodline martial artists of the [Rationalist School]. There, he thoroughly researched the Solar God bloodline and successfully developed an alchemical serum capable of transplanting it. However, using the serum required certain prerequisites—something like a willpower check, essentially forcing players to go through trials and quests.

Afterward, he would express admiration for the player's extraordinary talent, hand over the serum, and fully complete his bloodline transplantation technique, granting the player some bonus stats and a permanent passive buff.

The skill was called Child of the Great Sun: wherever starlight shone, stamina would regenerate by a certain amount every second.

Right now, however, he seemed to be in the very early stages of his exile.

Moreover, he appeared to still be accumulating initial capital to fund his research.

"Accents sounding similar is quite normal. New Fleros originally used the Guning language as well, though it has evolved differently across regions..." Lobo told Zhang Ji. "This isn't a proper place to talk. Please, come inside."

"Alright."

Zhang Ji changed his mind and decided to give Lobo a chance.

With that, Zhang Ji stepped into his clinic.

Upon entering, a slightly cluttered array of mechanical equipment came into view. It looked messy, but was actually arranged in an orderly fashion.

Many of these items bore the unmistakable marks of custom welding rather than mass production, clearly bearing the crude and simple hallmark of grassroots craftsmanship.

Zhang Ji continued further inside. The passageway led downward, blocked off by a heavy iron door.

"Pardon me, please make way!"

Lobo dragged two bodies over on an electric pulley cart.

They were the very two men Zhang Ji had killed.

Zhang Ji stepped aside. Lobo opened the iron door and hauled the corpses inside.

After a moment's thought, Zhang Ji followed behind him.

Further down, the aesthetic of the space shifted.

Strange materials, chemical stock solutions, a chilling operating table, and a row of incubation chambers filled with blue or green nutrient fluid.

It somewhat resembled the alchemical research lab on Shannli Island, only much more rudimentary.

Yet, without a doubt, the man was indeed a professional.

He had not mistaken his identity; this was undoubtedly Lobo.

Speaking of which, in *Supreme Combat*, he knew of upwards of a thousand useful NPCs across various nations, and quite a few of them were likely unestablished at this point in time. If he were to invest in them and track down their whereabouts, the future returns would surely be astronomical.

Though he was playing a different version of the game now, as long as he had enough influence and searched with diligence, he would certainly find them.

All of that would have to wait, however. For now, he needed to resolve his current predicament.

"Alright, taken care of," Lobo said, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

"Are you that terrified of the faction behind them?" asked Zhang Ji.

Hearing the voice transmit from the phone, Lobo wore a peculiar expression as he replied, "Mister, did you only just arrive here? In a place like Midleth, who on earth dares to cross the Dean Gang?"

"Are they that powerful?" asked Zhang Ji.

"Who doesn't know that the Dean Gang is backed by the nation of Roman? They can even get their hands on military armor," said Lobo.

Zhang Ji understood.

It seemed this was a local faction nurtured by the upper echelons of a major power to rake in wealth.

This was a common occurrence between great nations.

"How do you plan to help me?" Zhang Ji skipped the small talk and asked directly.

"I need to examine your wound first. Is that convenient for you?" said Lobo.

"Go ahead," Zhang Ji nodded.

"Then please take a seat over here," Lobo gestured toward a medical chair nearby, then added, "By the way, what is your name, mister?"

"Zhang Ji," he replied.

"Zhang Ji? Sounds a bit familiar, like a name from the East Pole Nation. Are you from the East Pole Nation?"

As he spoke, Lobo stepped closer and began carefully inspecting the stump of Zhang Ji's missing leg.

"You could say that," Zhang Ji answered.

"That's a wonderful place—scenic views... plenty of great food, very suitable for living. Years ago, I even thought about settling down there..."

Lobo trailed off mid-sentence.

The sight of the injury left him profoundly shocked.

He had seen all kinds of wounds, but Zhang Ji's injury was more absurd than anything he had ever witnessed.

It didn't look like it had been cut by a sharp blade; it was more like a blunt force trauma, yet the cut was bizarrely clean, as if it had been crushed and instantly obliterated by a hydraulic press...

And the surrounding scorch marks...

Had he walked through a raging inferno?

Lobo cut away the tattered fabric of Zhang Ji's pants and carefully pinched a piece of flesh lingering near the leg using a pair of tweezers.

To his astonishment, the flesh possessed incredible toughness and exerted a distinct, spring-like resilience.

The physique of a martial artist was naturally stronger than that of an ordinary person.

Especially professional-grade martial artists.

"Allow me to ask, if I may—what rank of martial artist are you?" Lobo inquired.

"Does that have anything to do with the treatment?" Zhang Ji countered.

"It has some bearing. After all, a martial artist's body is stronger than an ordinary person's. Based on your general condition, I can determine the appropriate dosage of medicine and the materials for the prosthetic. If you'd be willing to give me a small sample of your blood, that would be even better..." Lobo said.

"I'm not familiar with your specific ranking system; we don't divide them that way over there. If I had to put a label on it..." Zhang Ji paused, "Grandmaster, eighth tier?"

He possessed grandmaster-level martial arts honed across eight gates, which was why he assigned himself the rank of eighth-tier grandmaster.

In reality, based on the varying destructive intensities of those martial arts, he was already approaching B-tier territory.

"Grandmaster, eighth tier?"

Hearing this, Lobo's expression changed slightly.

He knew what a grandmaster was, but an eighth-tier grandmaster?

He stared closely at Zhang Ji.

He had initially thought he was merely dealing with a professional martial artist above the sixth tier, but it seemed things weren't quite that simple.

Still, he needed to verify whether the man was just blowing smoke.

"May I take a small sample of your blood? Just a tiny bit, right from your fingertip," Lobo requested.

"Go ahead," Zhang Ji said indifferently.

Lobo pulled out a blood collection device, aimed it at Zhang Ji's index finger, and pressed the button.

*Click!*

The alloy blood collection needle bent instantly against the skin, making Lobo's eyes widen in disbelief.

This device of his was specially crafted; it could pierce right through a solid plate of iron, yet it had failed utterly here!

"Let me help you."

A flash of blue light danced across Zhang Ji's fingertip. His primordial energy pierced his skin, causing a single drop of blood to well up and drip into the collection vessel.

He could have stored his martial arts crystalized energy within his boundary space before letting his blood be drawn, but he was also curious about the specific properties of his blood while in peak condition.

"Please rest for a moment..."

With the blood in hand, Lobo couldn't suppress his eagerness and immediately rushed off to begin his research.

A grandmaster!

Even within the royal family of the Kingdom of Guning, such individuals served as elite imperial guards.

The entire nation had fewer than a hundred of them.

Normally, he would never get the chance to collect blood from one for research.

Zhang Ji watched as Lobo hurried away, leaving him stranded here, and felt a brief wave of speechlessness.

Fanatical researchers were always like this; once they became engrossed in their work, everything else fell by the wayside.

He didn't stop him, however. Instead, he picked up his phone and began learning the local language.

With his current mental attributes, focusing his mind even slightly granted him near-photographic memory. Learning a new language wouldn't even take two days.

This would make his activities here much more convenient. After all, he couldn't rely on phone translations forever, could he?

...

Meanwhile, on the other side of the lab, Lobo stared at his experimental data, a strange gleam flickering in his eyes.

"Fusion with the third-tier bloodline serum is normal, the fifth tier as well... Even the seventeenth tier, a crude bloodline extract like that, poses no problem... Could he adapt to everything? What kind of creature is he? Is he even human from the Origin Star?"

Lobo was utterly stunned by the reaction of Zhang Ji's blood.

He had never witnessed such a bloodline before.

It seemed capable of compatible harmony with everything, unifying all things.

Yet, this was precisely the defining characteristic of a player.

The ultimate martial arts talent, apex-level in every aspect.

Even when undergoing alchemical modifications, their compatibility was top-tier, allowing them to transform their bodies into those bizarre and formidable forms with virtually zero rejection.

Suddenly, a bold hypothesis sprouted in Lobo's mind.

His gaze shifted toward the direction of his sample vault safe.

Inside rested the greatest achievement he had produced since beginning his research into bloodline transplantation technology.

Of course, it was still a semi-finished product, and progress on the next phase had stalled indefinitely.

Things were different now, however. He had found a unique experimental subject.

He was bound to succeed. Even as a semi-finished product, the subject would surely adapt to it. He wouldn't even need to dilute the potency of the bloodline; he could perform the transplantation directly at full concentration.

If he succeeded, he would witness the birth of a new myth!

To personally forge a living god?

It was simply too thrilling!

A burning fervor welled up in Lobo's eyes.

This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He didn't want to miss it, and he couldn't afford to miss it!