Chapter 4: A Grand Project

The corners of Li Kui's mouth twitched. He let out an awkward laugh, clearly not expecting this harmless-looking kid in front of him to make such an outrageous request.

All he could do was say, "I can't give you any more. We've got to make a living too, after all…"

"Sigh…" Lin Binbin let out a long sigh under Li Kui's nervous gaze. "Actually, my father always thought highly of you back in the day. He often told us how exceptional Uncle Li's martial skills were—what a capable man you were. It's just a pity that you left back then, otherwise, you could've achieved something great."

Li Kui was stunned. For someone like him, a mere foot soldier, to be admired by Lin Qin—and even mentioned to his children? A wave of emotion surged in his heart. Without further hesitation, he clapped his hand.

"Alright! Take it!"

The supposedly worthless scrap he picked up turned out to be a D-grade metal-element crystal core!

Lin Binbin was overjoyed.

Metal-element crystal cores naturally have a protective film, and their dull color makes them look like ordinary rocks. As such, they're hard to recognize, and many people mistakenly sell them as common minerals.

But Lin Jiang was different—he had the system.

[Don't be surprised. This isn't just a rock. Hidden treasures always require someone with an eye for beauty. I hope you're that person.]

Fortunately, Lin Binbin had taken the gamble—and that "rock" became the energy core for a mech.

So cool. His charm had been proven once again.

What a considerate system.

Lin Binbin hurried home and locked the item securely in his room.

That evening, Cheng Mo trudged back from work, exhausted, still wondering what kind of spirit beast Lin Binbin's egg had hatched.

"Cheng Mo!" A familiar voice called out.

Cheng Mo looked up in surprise and saw Lin Binbin waving at him from a distance. Before he could respond, Lin had already dashed over, grabbed him, and started dragging him away.

"Slow down! I can't breathe…" Cheng Mo gasped after a few steps. Lin simply let go and pushed him from behind.

"Hurry! I've got something interesting to show you."

He even gave him a playful wink.

Lin Binbin's mysterious attitude made Cheng Mo a bit nervous. He glanced around and asked in a low voice, "So what did that beast egg hatch into?"

"Is it powerful?"

"I don't know about powerful, but I'm telling you—my spirit beast's potential definitely exceeds even the SSS-grade ones."

Lin Binbin grinned proudly. "And we—both of us—can become SSS-grade Beast Tamers."

"Really? I can really become a Beast Tamer like you said?"

Cheng Mo's potential was practically nonexistent. Lin Jiang had taken a look—most of his stats were negative. The only high stat was his charisma, which was absurdly off the charts.

No wonder he always managed to dodge punishment whenever he slacked off—there was the reason.

"Would I lie to you?"

Cheng Mo chuckled foolishly, his hopes rising. His brother had always kept his word—he wouldn't lie.

He'd already imagined himself flying through the skies on a red dragon. If his beast was SSS-grade, wouldn't it be even stronger? When he became a Beast Tamer, he could just wave his hand and have the beast do everything—no more sweeping the courtyard ever again!

But when he looked at the blueprints laid out on the table, Cheng Mo scratched his head awkwardly. "Lin Binbin… what's all this say?"

"Is this telling us how to feed high-grade beasts? Do they eat raw meat or cooked?"

Feeding high-grade beasts wasn't the same as feeding lower-tier ones—heaps of grass wouldn't cut it.

Hearing that he could become a Beast Tamer, Cheng Mo had already started planning how to buy food for his future beast.

But Lin Binbin's heart skipped a beat—he'd forgotten Cheng Mo was illiterate.

Cheng Mo had been born and raised in the Deadly Nether Mountains. His father only ever had one wish for him: to survive.

Lin Binbin sighed and said, "Ahem. Just know that this stuff will help us get an SSS-grade beast."

"I've named it—'Mech.'"

"Mech?" Cheng Mo's eyes lit up. "Did the old immortal from your dream tell you all this?"

Lin Binbin could only nod.

In his mind, he was already planning how to bring Cheng Mo into the fold.

Cheng Mo's father was in charge of supervision. Now that they had materials, they needed access to the smelting room to forge molten iron.

"But before that, you need to help the old immortal with a task. Are you willing?"

Cheng Mo felt a fire ignite in his chest and nodded furiously. "I'm willing! I'm totally in!"

Lin Binbin smiled. "Alright then—let's work toward becoming Beast Tamers together."

The next day.

Lin Binbin and Cheng Mo were transferred from the beast pens to the forge room.

The forge room was where minerals and crystal cores were refined. Normally, children weren't allowed in, but to support his son, Cheng Wang arranged for them to use an abandoned five-square-meter fuel storage room. It was small, but enough.

Right in front of them stood a furnace. The intense heat warped the air, but despite their labored breathing, both boys wore expressions of excitement.

"Bro, when do we start catching spirit beasts? Are we going after fire-type ones?"

Cheng Mo thought they were here to connect with fire in some spiritual way—to help them catch fire-element beasts.

Lin Jiang gave him a strange look but said nothing. After a moment, he handed Cheng Mo a separate gear diagram.

"We're not catching one. We're making one."

Cheng Mo stared blankly at the blueprint in his hand.

As expected, he couldn't understand a thing.

With a pitiful look, he asked, "Got anything simpler?"

Lin Binbin paused.

Actually… there was something simpler. He responded, "Let me check," and began flipping through a stack of blueprints thicker than his hand.

These were all diagrams he had painstakingly redrawn overnight. Each part had its own page. The tricky components were even marked with red ink.

Hmm… they all looked kind of hard.

Lin Binbin thought for a moment and glanced at Cheng Mo's hopeful face. "How about this—you just help me smelt the iron?"

"Done. I can do that," Cheng Mo nodded eagerly.

"Alright. Let's finish today's work first. Then we'll slowly build the mech. A little each day—we'll finish it eventually."

And so, the two boys began their epic project to handcraft a mech.

By the time the third shift change rolled around in the evening, the two revolutionaries were still completely absorbed in their work.

"Sanzi! Sanzi!"

"Huh? What's with all this junk piled up at the door?" Suddenly, Lin Binbin's older brother Lin Xiaosheng's voice rang out. Seeing the heap of scrap outside, he gave it a hard kick.

BANG!

The loud noise startled the two boys inside, and they turned around in unison.