Chapter 14: Immersive Forging and Quality Grades

Chapter 14: Immersive Forging and Quality Grades

Now in a position of power, Jiang Feng was like a rat that had fallen into a rice jar.

He was relentlessly exploiting Hammer Industries' resources, mass-producing numerous armor components in rapid succession.

One after another, heavily armored mechanical creations with industrial aesthetics were born from Jiang Feng's hands.

In terms of production speed alone—

With the boost from his Mechanic profession, Jiang Feng's hand speed was astonishing—perhaps even Tony Stark would be left in the dust.

If Hammer or the military were to witness this scene—

They would either be overwhelmed with excitement or left in stunned disbelief.

After all, the Iron Suit was a dream of many, a piece of black-tech that even billions in funding couldn't easily replicate.

But now, in Jiang Feng's hands—

It was like assembly-line components in an electronics factory.

Each part was produced through simple procedures and laid out in bulk on his workbench.

What others could hardly imagine was—

These pieces of black-tech that haunted their dreams were still considered imperfect in Jiang Feng's eyes.

He wanted far more than just a basic Iron Suit.

Any component that didn't trigger an upgrade was treated as a subpar reject and tossed into his backpack to collect dust.

Once he returned to the Reincarnation Space, he planned to sell them off.

As for the Iron Suit he promised Hammer—Jiang Feng deliberately slowed its progress.

There was no rush.

The Reincarnators had only been in this trial world for a few days.

The plot of Iron Man 2 had just begun.

Even the government hearing to seize Iron Man's tech hadn't taken place yet.

And that was just the beginning.

There was still a series of plot events to go—racing, birthday parties, the creation of a new element—before the final battle at the Stark Expo.

As long as—

Jiang Feng delivered a completed Iron Suit to Hammer before then—

He would have fulfilled his promise to the budget boss.

His true goal was to take advantage of Hammer's resources for his own gain.

Even though he had joined Hammer Industries—

Since he had personally promised Hammer to build a suit—

And considering that Hammer had treated him quite well—

Jiang Feng wasn't planning to break his word.

Once the plot progressed a bit more, he'd hand over the much-desired suit and give his boss something to celebrate.

Ding! You have successfully crafted a mechanical creation. Based on its specific performance, your Mechanic profession has gained 79 experience points.

Ding! You have successfully crafted a mechanical creation... gained 76 experience points.

Ding! You have successfully crafted a mechanical creation... gained 85 experience points.

Ding! You have successfully crafted a mechanical creation and triggered the Forging Genius effect. Its quality has been upgraded. Based on its specific performance, your Mechanic profession has gained 379 experience points.

"Hm? Finally leveled up. My hands are sore and swollen."

Among the continuous system prompts—

A unique message stood out and was immediately caught by Jiang Feng's keen senses.

He paused.

Joy flickered in his eyes as he looked at the newly completed right leg of his exoskeleton.

A virtual screen popped up, displaying the item's information.

[Item Name: Unnamed Mechanical Exoskeleton (Right Leg)]

[Quality: Blue]

[Type: Combat Armor (Right Leg)]

[Effect: Provides powerful defense and strength enhancement. Highly durable. Equipped with thrusters for rapid movement and flight.]

[Description: Personally crafted by Reincarnator Jiang Feng. Excellent quality. Contains technology far beyond its time.]

"Another blue-grade component completed. Once I craft an upgraded battery, this first suit will basically be done."

Faced with this unpainted metal right leg, its shell gleaming with a silver shine, both slender and sturdy—

Jiang Feng was clearly satisfied and in high spirits.

Just reading the item description—

It might not seem much different from the crude exoskeleton arm he made earlier.

But in the Reincarnation Space—

That blue quality label was already enough to mark it as a highly valuable item.

Aside from traveling across worlds—

And having a personal backpack space—

The Reincarnation Space had another considerate feature: the ability for all Reincarnators to see item stats.

From a Reincarnator's perspective—

Any item could be categorized by performance, ranked from White, Green, Blue, Purple, to Gold.

It was rumored that even higher grades existed above Gold—

But with Jiang Feng's current abilities, he hadn't encountered them yet.

He'd only completed two trial worlds and was still technically a novice.

When Reincarnation Space assessed an item's quality—

It did so by comparing it to items of the same type.

For example—

A kitchen knife would only be compared to other kitchen knives, and armor to armor.

If different types were compared—

The boundaries between quality standards would become meaningless.

Take a kitchen knife and a piece of armor, for instance—

As a product of advanced technology and modern warfare—

Even a low-quality, white-grade piece of armor would vastly outperform a blue- or even purple-grade kitchen knife.

It was like comparing a weak Caterpie—

No matter how much it trained or leveled up, it would never be able to defeat a baby Rayquaza.

The two just weren't on the same level.

So even though the metal leg Jiang Feng had crafted was "only" blue quality and far from gold—

It was already an extremely valuable treasure.

Because its type was combat armor, it was inherently stronger than most other weapon types.

Even as a component—

If tossed into the Reincarnation Space, countless people would scramble to buy it.

But of course, Jiang Feng had no intention of selling such a good item.

His current half-complete armor set still needed more pieces—such a treasure should be kept for himself.

If he were to sell anything—

It would only be the green-quality rejects that failed to trigger an upgrade.

Without hesitation, Jiang Feng stored the exoskeleton leg in his backpack—

Placing it alongside the half-set of armor he had used during his Hell's Kitchen mission.

Each part of that set—

Except for the energy core—was blue-grade, crafted through careful selection, extensive resource use, and dozens of reforgings.

"The most urgent problem now is still the power source. I have to forge a blue-quality battery."

Now with a new blue-grade exoskeleton leg—

Jiang Feng's suit was nearly complete.

Almost full-body.

From here, Jiang Feng poured all his effort into repeatedly forging fuel cells—

Trying to once again trigger his Forging Genius ability and obtain a superior power source.

After the Hell's Kitchen operation, he became acutely aware of the power supply problem.

Even with just a half-suit—

After only a few hours of use—

The green-quality fuel cell had already run dry.

And that was only in low-intensity combat against ordinary humans—he hadn't even used flight or repulsor blasts.

So it was easy to imagine—

That when using a full Iron Suit in a high-stakes battle against superpowered foes—

A green-grade battery would probably only last half an hour.

That was far from enough for Jiang Feng.

Even if he carried multiple fully charged backup cells in his backpack—

Trying to swap out batteries in the middle of a fight—

Was basically impossible.

Real battles weren't like tokusatsu shows.

If the enemy had even a bit of intelligence, they wouldn't stand still and wait for you to transform.

Therefore—

He needed at least a blue-grade fuel cell—

Only then could the Iron Suit operate at full performance and handle any sudden crisis.

As of now, Jiang Feng was just an ordinary person.

His Warrior class was still at LV1—providing only minimal physical enhancement.

He was just a slightly stronger-than-average human.

So if he ended up fighting—

He'd still have to rely on technology as his main weapon.