The fabric of the storage bag didn’t present this problem; all that was needed was to craft a large piece of cloth.
No matter what oddly shaped items one intended to store, one simply had to wrap them in the storage bag fabric, and they would neatly fit into the waist bag or storage box.
It was uncertain whether it was due to a peculiar excretory system of the Crimson Iron Ants, but the Crimson Iron they expelled was always in the form of smooth, spherical balls about the size of ping-pong balls, and, coupled with their crimson red color, these pieces of Crimson Iron looked like ping-pong balls that had been painted the wrong color.
However, unlike ping-pong balls, which are made of plastic and filled with air, making them extremely light, these Crimson Iron balls were much denser than regular steel, so they felt significantly heavier when picked up. If an ordinary person tried to juggle a pair of these Crimson Iron balls as if they were walnuts, it wouldn’t take long before they’d likely develop tendonitis.
Half an hour later, a physically drained Zhang Yanhang jogged back to the initial C-shaped corridor at a reduced speed.
Since the monsters in the vicinity had been cleared, Zhang Yanhang comfortably pulled a double bed out of his waist bag, placed it on the corridor floor, and leisurely lay down to rest.
In case you’re wondering where the bed came from, naturally, it had been taken from Raccoon City. Besides a bed, Zhang Yanhang’s waist bag also contained items like a sofa and a table.
In this way, he could simply lay the bed on the ground and sleep anywhere and anytime. Of course, this was under the condition that the nearby monsters were cleared out; otherwise, the nuisance of being surrounded by monsters while sleeping, especially the irritation of being abruptly awoken just after falling asleep, would be intensely vexing.
The reason he chose to lie on the bed for rest was naturally because Zhang Yanhang was more accustomed to this mode of rest. After all, in Raccoon City, he always lay on a bed when resting. Although his current Constitution allowed him to rest well even on hard ground, lying on the ground still felt awkward.
Besides, he didn’t like to torture himself. If there was a soft bed available to lie on, why forsake it in favor of lying on the ground? He didn’t possess any special Talent or Skill that, for example, increased his Physical Recovery Speed when connected with the earth.
Unless he acquired such a Type of Talent or Skill, Zhang Yanhang would still prefer lying on the bed when resting.
After lying on the bed for a while, Zhang Yanhang sat up. There was roughly an hour and a half left before the Transmission Channel closed, and this amount of time wouldn’t restore much of his physical strength even if he slept, so he decided not to sleep this time. He planned to use this period to do something else.
For instance, he could research the Crimson Iron. Zhang Yanhang had previously filled his storage box with several cubic meters of Crimson Iron, which weighed around several dozen tons due to its high density.
After all, one cubic meter of iron weighs about seven to eight tons, given its density—let alone Crimson Iron, which has an even higher density. Therefore, it made sense for the collected amount to be of this magnitude.
Although he said he had taken several dozen tons of Crimson Iron, the stash of Crimson Iron in the Ant Nest still had a large pile left; Zhang Yanhang had only taken a meager portion of it.
After all, even if a single Crimson Iron Ant excreted just one hundred grams of Crimson Iron a day, a five-digit number of Crimson Iron Ants would still produce at least a ton per day. Such accumulation over days and months naturally resulted in an enormous quantity of collected Crimson Iron.
This was also why Zhang Yanhang wasn’t impressed by the half-kilogram of Crimson Iron in the Treasure Box. After all, compared to the amount accumulated within the Crimson Iron Ant Nest itself, that half-kilogram in the Treasure Box was simply too insignificant.
Although the crimson iron found within these ant nests couldn’t be taken out of Ashen World, Zhang Yanhang had, after all, previously researched how to bring items that can’t leave the Ashen World out of it.
So, Zhang Yanhang once again pulled out his white-quality chopper, and yes, it was still the same one used as the experiment subject. The ruby previously used for the experiment was still inlaid in the handle as Zhang Yanhang’s time back in the Main World was too short, and he had forgotten to pry out the gemstone.
Zhang Yanhang then took off from his waist bag a crimson iron ball, which he had found in the Crimson Iron Ant toilet earlier.
Zhang Yanhang’s left hand lit up with an alchemy array, and he melted a large hole in the handle of the chopper just like last time when he inlaid the ruby, and he inlaid the crimson iron ball into it.
After inlaying the crimson iron ball, Zhang Yanhang re-examined the attribute list of the big saber, and everything was still normal. It remained a weapon that could be taken out of the Ashen World and hadn’t been affected by the inlaying of the crimson iron ball.
However, unlike the previous inlaying of the ruby, this time, after the inlaying of the crimson iron ball had finished, there was an increase in the chopper’s score.
[Chopper (Unnamed) +3]
[Origin: Ashen World, Crimson Iron Ore Vein, Small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu, Outer Zone, Zhang Yanhang.]
[Usage Requirements: None.] Chapters first released on NoveI-Fire.ɴet
[Score: 10 (White item score ranges from 1 to 10.)]
[Introduction: Originally the weapon of the Big Saber Goblin, it was newly reforged by the novice alchemist Zhang Yanhang after being broken into two pieces, and as expected, all he managed to produce was a piece of trash. However, the novice alchemist Zhang Yanhang was not willing to give up and reforged it again, yet even after the reforging, it was still just a piece of trash.
Unexpectedly, the novice alchemist Zhang Yanhang still didn’t give up on this trash weapon, perhaps due to some special sentiment, and this time he inlaid a ruby that offered no actual bonus effects and served purely a decorative purpose.
Following the last inlaying of the ruby, for some inexplicable reason, the novice alchemist Zhang Yanhang actually remembered this trash weapon again, and this time he inlaid a complete piece of crimson iron, but even this piece of crimson iron couldn’t elevate this trash weapon to green quality.]
"Except for an increased score, there was no change in either durability or attack power as expected; inlaying crimson iron into the handle in this way is indeed an unorthodox method."
Zhang Yanhang remembered that the chopper’s score was only six points before, but it had now increased to ten, becoming a white-quality weapon with full points. Yet even with an actual score increase, it could hardly disguise the fact that this was a piece of trash weapon; one could only say that the description in the item introduction did indeed match its strength.