The following day.
"Blueprint?" Iris asked, stopping what she was doing and turning to look at Cipher.
"Yeah, a blueprint," he confirmed.
She held her chin in thought. "Let me see if I have something," she said, putting down her tools and moving to her cabinet.
She rummaged through the messy cabinet, tools and scraps tumbling out as she dug deeper. Bolts clattered to the floor, half-finished gadgets spilled onto the desk, and sheets of paper fluttered down. She pushed aside a tangle of wires, knocked over a container of screws, and shoved through layers of accumulated projects.
"Don’t you have other blueprints?" Cipher asked, watching the chaos unfold.
"No, just this one," she replied, still searching.
"It was the first blueprint I made when I had just awakened," she said.
"You didn’t make any more after that?" he asked.
"Why would I need to? My head is better than a piece of paper," she said.
Cipher nodded. That made sense.
"Ah, found it," she said as she pulled out a crumpled paper from the very back.
She walked over to him and placed it in his hands. "It’s the blueprint for the first item I made - a pulse gun."
Cipher looked at the paper. He wondered if this could really be considered a blueprint. Would it really work with his cheat? He slowly uncrumpled the paper and inspected it carefully.
At that moment, a notification appeared.
[New blueprint acquired: Pulse Gun v1]
"It really worked," he thought.
"Do you have the materials for making this pulse gun?" Cipher asked, shaking her shoulders in excitement.
"I guess. It’s just low-level stuff," she said, confused by his excitement.
"Quick, bring the materials. I think I might be onto something huge," he said.
"Alright," she said, going to the storage room and coming out with some materials a few seconds later. "Here. This should be enough to make about ten of those," she said as she placed them down.
"Good," Cipher said as he took the materials into his inventory.
He then stretched his hand forward and concentrated on the Map Editor cheat. The cheat said he could make constructs. Wasn’t this a construct too? Since it had registered the blueprint, then it was definitely possible.
After activating the cheat, a pulse gun appeared before him.
Iris’s eyes widened in shock. "What? How did you do that?" she asked.
Cipher just smiled and made another one.
Now she was jumping in excitement, clinging to his hands. "Teach me, teach me, teach me," she chanted in excitement.
Cipher laughed, "As much as I’d like to teach you this, I probably can’t. It’s a unique skill."
Hearing this, she deflated in disappointment.
He placed a hand on her shoulder. "There’s no need to be so disappointed. Actually, there’s a way for you to learn it," he said.
"Really?" She raised her eyes to meet his.
"Yeah. Even though it’s a unique skill, it still has some laws it follows. Although you can’t copy the complete unique skill, you should be able to study the underlying principle and make something with similar functionality."
Her eyes brightened instantly. "Oh, I didn’t think of that!" She grabbed onto his hand. "Quick, do it again. I need to study this."
Cipher pulled his hand away gently. "Not right now," he said.
"Why not?" she asked in disappointment.
"I need to go to the gate to gather the resources we need for the main project," he explained.
"But this is actually a good thing," he added.
"A good thing?"
He nodded. "While I’m gone, you can take the time to make blueprints for the anti-magic equipment. This is actually better - you can learn much more when I’m constructing complex constructs," he explained.
She nodded in understanding. "Alright, I’ll do that."
"But before I go, I need a favor from you," Cipher said.
"A favor? Sure, what do you want?" she asked.
"I need metal, lots of it," he said.
"Metal? Sure, I have some to spare," she said.
"I would also like for you to write me some quick blueprints," he said.
"What kind of blueprints?" she asked.
"I need a wall, a roof, a floor, a cone, and a ramp," he said.
"That’s easy," she thought. She’d expected something much more difficult. "Alright, you can get the metal yourself from the storage - it’s labeled. I’ll write you the blueprints. Should be done in about five minutes," she said.
...
A while later, after finalizing some details with Iris and receiving the materials and blueprints, Cipher joined up with his teammates who had been waiting for him outside the Association area.
After greeting each other, they began walking.
"Did you receive the news? I forgot to tell you yesterday," Cipher asked Selene.
"Yeah. Thanks for the endorsement," she said.
"No need to thank me. If they didn’t believe in your skills, they wouldn’t have voted in favor of you," Cipher said with a smile.
"News?" Maya asked.
"Endorsement?" Ryker spoke.
"Vote?" Dante wondered aloud.
"That’s right. Selene here was selected to fill the empty executive position after Luna’s death," Cipher explained. "The chairman probably wants to announce it publicly during the Strongest Human event."
He then glanced at Selene. "Although the other executives and I acknowledge your skills, your peers might look down on you and see it as cheating the system through me. Do you understand what I mean?"
"I understand. I’ll advance to B-rank and participate in the event to show off my skills," she said.
Cipher smiled, nodding in satisfaction. Selene was quick to catch on.
She didn’t need to win. Although the event was for the Strongest Human, they also had to make it entertaining, so they were probably going to start with weak individuals from all over the world fighting amongst each other before they got to the actual top fights.
"In the middle ranks of the Association, I believe you are the strongest. Don’t let the other guilds look down on us. We need to show them that not just the top people are strong," he said.
She nodded.
He then turned to the others. "Ryker, you should also participate. How far are you from B-rank?"
"Just a little," he responded.
"Good. You both can enter B-rank this time and participate. The Association will surely reward you for your contribution," Cipher said.
Ryker nodded.
"Wait, does that mean that our team no longer has a captain?" Maya asked.
"Ah, I just realized that. What do we do now?" Dante spoke.
"Since Ryker was the vice captain, shouldn’t he take over as the captain now?" Maya said.
Dante nodded, turning to look at Ryker. But Ryker didn’t respond.
Cipher glanced at him, wondering what the issue was. He then smiled. He understood what was going through Ryker’s mind. Ryker was quite prideful. Before, he had even looked down on Cipher, believing he’d reached his position through connections. Maybe he felt that he didn’t deserve this position as he hadn’t worked for it.
"How about this - if you perform well in the competition, you’ll be promoted to the captain position. What do you think?" Cipher proposed.
Ryker’s eyes brightened and he raised his clenched fist. "Leave it to me."