CHAPTER 272: CHAPTER 232: THE UNREMARKABLE SEWING TABLE

After leaving the instance, returning to the room on channel 995, Li Zheng left Sakura and the Pink Poli to play on the open ground and released his capsule residence.

Inside, he didn’t rush to craft the sewing table but first went to the materials pile to pick and choose.

"The Power Gear is a No Tier item, but dismantling a Platinum level boss only yields a dozen, indicating its rarity isn’t low. If I compensate them with materials, items below Gold Level might not be valued enough."

"But above Gold Level, I don’t have much myself... Maybe I should exchange it for something else?"

Li Zheng withdrew his gaze from the material pile and looked at the Potion Making Station and stove: "It seems I only have potions and cooking as my strong suits now?"

Thinking it over, rather than giving them material-type items, it might be better to give them items that can immediately boost their strength.

Potions and cooking do seem to be more suitable choices.

"Hmm... I remember their attributes are all almost maxed out at Black Iron 3+ limits, so how about boosting their attributes to the 3+ limit, and then giving each of them four Bronze Level dishes?"

After careful consideration, Li Zheng decided on the plan to give all four people Black Iron 4+ limit potions but reduced the dishes to four Black Iron Level per person.

Once decided, Li Zheng took out the long-unused Snake Grass Needle and went through the virtual marketplace to buy up any Black Iron level blood with vague pricing he could find.

After half an hour, Li Zheng was able to prepare everything and sent them over to Wang Chaoran and the others one by one.

To save time, he opted for the fastest cooking dishes like salads, cold dishes, and stir-fries, which were sent out with the potions.

After finishing everything, the Snake Grass Needle count, originally over six thousand, dwindled by one percent with a relatively outrageous price.

When Li Zheng was at the Black Iron Level himself, there wasn’t this much Black Iron Blood in the marketplace; players hoarded everything like hamsters regardless of its usefulness.

After these days of exploration, Black Iron Blood became more abundant in the market, and most players discovered that these blood materials, except for a few, were not particularly useful, so more people were willing to trade them.

Although the items increased, the prices were somewhat outrageous, with few players willing to purchase them autonomously.

It’s estimated that in a few days, prices might drop further, and the blood material market will stabilize.

Sometime in the future, Black Iron level items might even become trash that others casually discard.

"Potions can quickly increase some strength, and while cooking is somewhat inferior, the most important aspect for them is to improve their diet since they must be tired of eating roasted meat every day by now."

Li Zheng was willing to use cooking as a token of appreciation only because Wang Chaoran and the others had voluntarily let him have some of the materials at the end.

Otherwise, he would at least wait until others complained on the world channel before bringing it out.

By then, the value of cooking would have soared to the highest!

Even just one Black Iron Level dish, people would be willing to exchange for it at a high price!

After dealing with the rewards for Wang Chaoran and the others, Li Zheng took the blueprint for the sewing machine and confirmed production.

The USB melted into a faint light and disappeared, with the system alerting completion after thirty seconds, suggesting he find a place to set it up.

"Since it’s a sewing table, naturally it should be placed beside the bed!" Li Zheng recalled his grandmother’s old sewing machine, which was also placed by the bedside window, where he occasionally saw her sitting in front of it mending his clothes.

His grandmother was exceptionally skilled at mending clothes, able to repair any tear on any part of the clothing with various methods.

Sometimes, after a nap, he would find a teddy bear patch on his shirt, taken from clothes he had outgrown long ago.

Even though wearing such clothes meant getting teased for being "childish" or "not growing up," no one ever made fun of Li Zheng for wearing patched clothes.

In Li Zheng’s memory, his grandmother’s greatest skill was probably her needlework, reportedly earning his father a fair amount of spending money during her youth.

Unfortunately, ever since his grandmother’s eyesight declined, that sewing machine was never touched again.

Li Zheng had also not worn clothes mended by his grandmother in a long time.

He never got to wear them again until she passed away.

The sewing table in front of the bed, however, looked nothing like what Li Zheng imagined.

The metallic tabletop was over two meters in both length and width, with an adjustable and moderate height.

The table surface was engraved with many scales and detachable rulers, and it also came with various scissors hanging on the side.

The most important part, the sewing machine, was actually hidden beneath the table, needing a switch press to rise up.

Li Zheng tried operating it and found that this sewing table was entirely manual!

"It doesn’t even have an automated production function?" Li Zheng was utterly baffled; this design seemed less convenient than handcrafting, didn’t it?

What exactly is its purpose?

Old Prel seemed to know his question and provided hints for clarification:

[With the advancement of technology, more automated production machinery has emerged, and life materials have become more abundant, leading people to pursue pure handmade products, which were once discarded as obsolete.

This sewing table, while manually operated, possesses advantages that an outsider like you cannot comprehend.

It’s suggested to place it in capable hands. That young girl would be a good choice; she can help you solve many questions.]

"Young girl?" Li Zheng was slightly taken aback after reading the prompt text; Old Prel probably meant Li Chun, right?

Why are you advising me to pass on something I got from the Treasure Chest to someone else rather than learning how to use it myself?

Isn’t this a classic case of helping outsiders at the expense of insiders?

On second thought, indeed, with the time spent learning, it’d be better for me to practice my Swordsmanship more and achieve mastery sooner.

"Alright then..."

Li Zheng thought for a moment, lifted the private chat restriction, and sent a message to Li Chun, explaining his decision to lend her the sewing table indefinitely in a no-value mode.

Though this sewing table was made from a Gold Level blueprint, it’s essentially a piece of upgradeable equipment; as long as the corresponding materials to replace needles and threads on the sewing machine are found, it can also produce more advanced equipment in the future.

So directly gifting it to the other party is unrealistic. At most, like the Platinum Level nanorobot, a long-term rental agreement can be set up, allowing the other party to use it for free.

Li Chun only needs to bear the energy consumption during the use period.

By the way, if Li Zheng has materials in the future, he can also ask for help with processing without any psychological burden.

The young lady gladly accepted this.

The only difficulty is... Li Chun’s residence is still the original size, with insufficient space to place this equipment.

Therefore, Li Zheng still needs to set up a mode for immediately relisting the returned equipment for rental on his side.

Everything was sorted out, and the sewing table that had just come into possession disappeared from sight.

Afterward, once the young lady familiarized herself with the equipment, Li Zheng consulted her on the differences between this sewing table and hand-crafted equipment.

Li Chun patiently explained everything one by one.

Overall, this equipment, although sacrificing the convenience brought by hand-crafted equipment, its overall utility is more worthwhile than hand-crafted equipment.

The main reason is that Li Chun can use the sewing table to freely combine materials, choose different furs or fabrics, and craft different equipment based on her needs.

This aspect is actually very unreasonable for hand-crafted equipment, as it only accepts a single material.

For example, Li Zheng’s Eye Demon War Boots only used Eye Demon Resilient Hide, ultimately resulting in a single trait.

However, with the equipment crafted through the sewing table, as long as Li Chun’s material ratios are reasonable, she can even add multiple traits to a piece of equipment.

Using finished equipment as an example, Death Declaration is a good case.

"It’s not just that. I just tried with a piece of finished clothing and discovered that this sewing table has another incredible function," Li Chun finally brought another piece of good news to Li Zheng.

"That is, the sewing table can also decompose equipment! Combined with the Prelis’ Eye provided by Brother Li Zheng, I even have a certain chance through decomposition to obtain the key parts that grant equipment’s traits!"

Li Zheng didn’t quite understand: "What do you mean?"

Li Chun replied: "Let me demonstrate it to you, send those boots over here."

Li Zheng did as instructed, took off the Eye Demon War Boots, and sent them over.

Ten minutes later, Li Chun finally sent the items back.

Li Zheng took out the war boots and found that the returned boots seemed somewhat different; the surface had been patched with something similar.

"Is this... the fur of the Platinum Level creature ’Gale Lynx’?" Li Zheng knew the identity of the patch through the prompt from Prelis’ Eye.

Looking at these patched boots, Li Zheng felt a momentary daze.

The dark-toned Eye Demon War Boots had patches of pure black fur sewn on both sides, and the two pieces of fur seemed to be fragments with irregular shapes.

But Li Chun’s craftsmanship was outstanding; the irregular fur fragments sewn by her hand surprisingly did not seem out of place at all.

Li Zheng even thought there was a strange "asymmetric beauty," as if these two pieces of fur were meant to be sewn this way, with not even a slight deviation allowed.

The last person who made him feel this way about patching was his grandmother!

At this moment, Li Zheng felt a hint of emotion, an inexplicable urge to cry.

Li Chun sent a message: "Does Brother Li Zheng see the effect? Are you satisfied?"

"Satisfied!" Li Zheng glanced at the attributes of the Eye Demon War Boots after patching and added, "Very satisfied!"

Besides the appearance, even the attributes of these boots had changed.

Under the original trait of "Short Distance Teleportation," a new trait of "Rapid Step" had appeared.

It increases walking speed on flat ground, which is incredibly useful whether traveling or dodging in combat.

Li Zheng put on the boots and asked, "You didn’t decompose a pair of Gold Level shoes to obtain those fragments, did you?"

Li Chun, sitting on the back of the small spider while heading to the next room, replied barefoot to Li Zheng, "Oh, it’s just a practice pair of shoes. As long as Brother Li Zheng is satisfied, that’s all that matters."

Li Zheng subconsciously felt something was off; since when did Li Chun become so extravagant, using even Gold Level gear as practice material?

However, he assumed Li Chun had decomposed a pair of boots intended for sale, so he didn’t overthink it and directly replied, "Little Chun’s craftsmanship is almost on par with my grandma’s, especially satisfied."

For Li Zheng, that was the highest level of praise.

After all, he had seen many so-called world-class fashion designer shows online, and he always thought that the clothes they designed were far inferior to the clothes patched by his grandmother.

"As long as Brother Li Zheng is satisfied, I have to continue exploring, so I won’t chat with you!"

Li Chun closed the private chat interface, lay on the back of the small spider, hugged its fearsome head, and happily exclaimed, "Little spider, I’ve helped Brother Li Zheng again, so happy!"

"Hiss~"

The little spider, with its neck held, reluctantly let out a perfunctory hiss.

"But just now, I used some advanced materials to upgrade the sewing table, so let’s find a way to earn them back today!" Li Chun sat upright and pointed confidently ahead.

The originally multicolored little spider beneath her had somehow changed in appearance, completely jade-green, looking like a walking emerald.

[Pet: Jade Spider

Tier: Platinum Level Elite

Belongs to Player: 0000879 Li Chun]

It’s not just Li Zheng who is continually progressing; everyone else is also gradually getting stronger.