Chapter 67 - 63: Forging
To find a surgeon in this environment—one with modern medical training, formal clinical experience, and practical surgical skills—was a rare find.
’I’ve really hit the jackpot,’ Qin Ziwen thought.
As for the medical malpractice incident, you couldn’t be too demanding. Just as he’d said, he believed there were always accidents in this world that no one could ever predict.
Just like this whole transmigration.
Seeing that Qin Ziwen didn’t mind the blemish on his record, Zhao Pu relaxed considerably.
Zhao Pu said, "Mr. Qin, were any of you injured during the earlier conflict? Any wounds need to be treated immediately."
"Is anyone hurt?" Qin Ziwen asked, turning to his men.
Li Tieshan blinked. ’Injured?’
He just remembered someone trying to get in. He’d landed a heavy blow with his hammer, then given chase.
The man ran, and he chased.
Then, the man suddenly fell.
Li Tieshan looked at his arm and had a sudden realization. "Brother Qin! I was in too much of a hurry while running and slammed my arm into a wall. I’ve got a bruise here."
Deng Guang recalled following behind Qin Ziwen. After Qin Ziwen stabbed the man, Deng Guang had followed up with a blow from his club. He hadn’t clashed with anyone else after that.
He shook his head and said honestly, "I’m not injured."
Qin Ziwu puffed out his chest proudly. "Against a bunch of petty thieves like that? Why would I get hurt? It was a piece of cake."
Zhao Pu glanced at Qin Ziwu again. He remembered him as the one who’d come to tell them to "clean up" outside. ’He must be Mr. Qin’s brother,’ he thought.
He stepped forward and examined the bruise on Li Tieshan’s elbow. "I have some safflower oil at my place. I’ll put some on for you later. It should heal in a couple of days."
As his gaze fell upon the dense network of burn scars on Li Tieshan’s arm, a flicker of doubt appeared in Zhao Pu’s eyes.
’What does this man do for a living?’ Zhao Pu wondered. ’A welder? A chef?’
’If he’d just used some scar cream, he wouldn’t have ended up with so many.’
...
After sorting things out, Qin Ziwen returned to his apartment, ready to conduct an experiment.
He closed the door.
He had Li Tieshan start forging in the Level 1 Blacksmith Shop.
Standing in the hallway outside the room, he listened to see if the sound of the hammering would carry that far.
The apartment’s soundproofing was excellent. With three doors and several hundred square meters of space acting as a buffer, the sound was almost inaudible.
Only by pressing an ear to the door could one hear the faint, intermittent sound of hammering.
He then went to the floor above his. From up there, he couldn’t hear the sound at all.
This was likely because the Blacksmith Shop was located within the folded space created by the Expansion Card. It was a pocket dimension where sound propagation was naturally restricted.
’It’s daytime right now; I wonder if the sound will be more noticeable at night,’ Qin Ziwen mused.
Qin Ziwen considered this. Still, based on the experiment’s results, Li Tieshan could forge during the day without the sound getting out.
Li Yue still hadn’t provided the formula, but they could start smelting for now. They had plenty of iron ore, after all.
The top priority was to have Li Tieshan forge several suitable long weapons.
Long weapons were the best tools for dealing with beasts.
Longer is stronger. A simple wooden stick was just a last resort. The "makeshift Long Spear" Qin Ziwen had previously fashioned by gluing rope to a clothes-drying pole was, in Li Tieshan’s view, too flimsy. It would likely shatter on impact with any large beast.
Qin Ziwen told Li Tieshan to start by forging Long Spears. The spears needed to meet four key criteria: they had to be hard, somewhat flexible, have a sharp Spearhead, and be easy to wield.
As long as those conditions were met, looks didn’t matter.
Li Tieshan gave a rough time estimate. "My lord, it will probably take about five days."
"That long?"
Li Tieshan explained, "My lord, the smelting is the most time-consuming part. This is all raw ore. It takes about two days to smelt the raw ore into pig iron, and another day to refine the pig iron into wrought iron. Then, forging the shaft, shaping it, and polishing it will take roughly two more days."
"So smelting the ore is the biggest bottleneck, right?"
"Yes, my lord."
"What if you have refined materials to work with?" Qin Ziwen asked, pulling out some spare pots, bowls, and pans.
Li Tieshan inspected them carefully. "This will speed things up. I can forge a high-quality Spearhead within two days."
"Good. Get started. Let me know if you need anything."
"Yes."
With that, Li Tieshan picked up a bucket and went to dig for coal.
That afternoon, Guo Xiaochun came knocking.
"Brother Qin, Brother Qin! Something big has happened!"
Qin Ziwen let him into apartment 602 and poured him a glass of water. "What’s wrong? Sit down and tell me slowly."
Guo Xiaochun took a sip of water and shook his head. "It’s not really about you. In fact, I reckon for the next day or two, no one’s going to be paying any attention to you at all.
"You know how Wang Mingchao caused that huge scene the day before yesterday, making the whole altar business public?
"Well, things quieted down after he died, but today, somebody leaked the location of the altar he found. And it wasn’t just one person—multiple people leaked it. Now the whole Gated Community is in an uproar, with everyone trying to recruit people and build up their forces.
"From what I’ve heard, one group teamed up with Wang Mingchao’s old teammates. They formed a pact to take turns collecting the Card. But it turns out they had a mole. Someone secretly swiped the Card on the second day, and both sides started blaming each other. To figure out if it was an inside job or if some outsider was involved, they staked out the altar all night long. But right up until morning, nobody showed up to take the Card."
A strange expression crossed Qin Ziwen’s face. The more he listened, the more bizarre the story sounded.
’Why does this... sound so familiar?’
Guo Xiaochun cleared his throat and continued, "So now the truth is pretty obvious. Unless the person who snuck in and took the Card was a psychic, it makes no sense for them to show up on day one and then just not come back on day two.
"So, they’re sure someone on the inside leaked the location, letting an outsider grab the Card first. That temporary alliance fell apart immediately. Now everyone’s scrambling to form new teams, getting ready to fight for the Card tomorrow."
’Unbelievable.’
Qin Ziwen truly hadn’t expected it. ’Those people are ruthless,’ he thought. ’Instead of returning to the Gated Community, they stayed there all night, lying in wait.’
’If I hadn’t gotten that tip about someone targeting my home, I might have walked right into their trap.’
’Of course, with the Beaked Eagle, I might have spotted the danger ahead of time and avoided being caught.’
’But it still would have been a wasted trip.’
Besides, using the Beaked Eagle to snatch the Card was impossible. He’d tried it before—summoning a Card and having the Beaked Eagle try to grab it—but the creature couldn’t touch it.
It wasn’t just the Beaked Eagle; Li Tieshan couldn’t touch the Cards either.
Guo Xiaochun shook his head. "Brother Qin, there’ll be a lot of people going after that Card. A few hundred, at least. It’s going to be a bloodbath over there tomorrow. Who knows how many will die."
Guo Xiaochun then asked, "Are you going tomorrow?"
Qin Ziwen chuckled. "You just said how chaotic it’s going to be. What would be the point of me going?"
’There are already several hundred people going.’
’Why would I join that circus?’
’The risk is far too high. It’s just not worth it.’
’I’ve drawn enough attention for one day. If I keep this up, I’ll become public enemy number one.’
’Time to change my approach,’ he decided. ’I need to make better use of the Beaked Eagle’s ability to carry a phone and record video.’
...
...