Goodbye, Beloved Dream…

Dawn had only just begun to break, but many people in Chinatown were already up, some setting up their stalls, others exercising.

When they saw Kraft sprinting down the street, they all wore surprised expressions.

"Hey! Isn’t that Martin’s kid? You’re actually up this early today?"

The elderly men and women gathered for their morning exercises all greeted Kraft.

Kraft stopped, politely greeted them back, and only then answered, "I suddenly got an idea, so I’m heading to the lab to do some experiments."

"I always knew you’d grow up to be somebody!"

One old man patted Kraft on the shoulder and praised him with a wide, toothless grin before turning to boast to his old companions.

"What did I tell you back then? Kraft looked like a smart kid from the start, but none of you believed me!"

"Pah! Old Zhang, have you no shame? Back then, Little Li fixed your radio, and you only tossed out a compliment because you didn’t want to pay him for the work. As if I don’t know what a stingy old miser you are!"

"Exactly! What are you putting on airs for, Old Zhang? And I remember that you shameless old bastard really didn’t pay him in the end!"

The old men showed Old Zhang no mercy and immediately began tearing him down. Naturally, Old Zhang refused to let it go. He abandoned Kraft and launched into a fierce verbal battle with the crowd.

"Don’t mind those foolish old men," said an old woman holding a bright red fan as she pulled Kraft to her side. "You haven’t had breakfast yet, have you? Here, these are rice cakes Grandma made herself. Take them and fill your stomach."

"Rice cakes alone can be a little dry. I’ve got a bottle of milk here too."

Another old woman came over and handed him a bottle of milk, while several others also contributed the food they had brought with them.

"Thank you, Grandmas."

Kraft did not stand on ceremony. He accepted the food, packed it all into a bag, and waved goodbye to the old women.

"I’m in a hurry to get to the lab, so I’ll be going now."

"What a good boy. If my grandson were half as outstanding as him, I’d be satisfied."

"Exactly. I heard the things he makes earn quite a lot of money. Even the TV station went to their school to interview them."

"He’s handsome too, all refined and scholarly. What’s that phrase again? Bookish charm! Right, he’s like one of those great scholars from ancient times. No, I can’t let such a fine young man slip away. One day, I need to talk to Martin and see if we can arrange a marriage."

"You wish, you old hag! With that chubby granddaughter of yours, the Liao family boy would be a much better fit. Kraft is going to be my granddaughter’s husband!"

After the old men, the old women also began arguing over Kraft.

Kraft, who had already left, had no idea that he had somehow gained several fiancées. By then, he had arrived at his private workshop with the food in hand.

However, Kraft had no interest in breakfast right then. He casually placed the food on a nearby table, dug a recorder out of the pile of materials, and began dismantling it.

Since he did not have a bowtie on hand, Kraft simply made the voice changer into a small speaker. Once it was finished, he turned on the computer on the desk, recalled the code Professor Agasa had written in his dream, and typed it in word for word.

Once everything was complete, Kraft followed Professor Agasa’s example and opened a video, recorded a voice from it, then brought the little speaker to his mouth.

"Hello, hello, how are you? My name is Kraft Lee… Holy shit! It actually works!"

His altered voice sounded in his ears, exactly the same as the audio source in the video. Kraft was completely stunned.

"This makes no scientific sense!"

He plunged his fingers deep into his hair, his thoughts falling into chaos.

Thinking back on it now, those Power-Enhancing Shoes had seemed pretty abnormal too. They merely used electrical currents to stimulate his muscles, yet they had allowed him to fling a muscular man weighing well over a hundred, nearly two hundred pounds several meters away with one hand, without any side effects whatsoever. That seemed far too exaggerated. Kraft simply had not noticed it before because he knew little about bioengineering.

"So Professor Agasa’s world actually had some kind of mysterious element to it too?"

After thinking about it for a long time, that was the only conclusion Kraft could reach. He had dreamed of other technological worlds blessed with special powers before, but those worlds’ extraordinary forces had been obvious. Professor Agasa’s had been hidden so deeply that he had always assumed it was an ordinary world like this one.

"So that means I can master those mysterious powers too?"

At that thought, Kraft became excited again. He had long coveted the mystical creations from his dreams—Taoist arts, magic, and the like—but because he did not understand cultivation or magic at all, he had always treated them like movies.

But things were different now. Since Kraft could replicate Professor Agasa’s miraculous inventions, did that not mean he could also learn the methods from his dreams that let people fly through the sky and burrow through the earth?

It was not as though Kraft had never tried those mysterious methods before, and every attempt had failed. But perhaps the time simply had not been right then? Just as his dreams had constantly evolved, maybe he could now master these wondrous powers after all.

Kraft impatiently dug out a Mechanical Bird he had made before. Recalling the rune and incantation the Mohists used to animate mechanisms, he picked up a carving knife and carefully engraved the rune onto it. Then he chanted, "Silent, one contemplates; speaking, one instructs; acting, one accomplishes… Ha!"

Imitating the movements of the Mohist disciples from his dream, Kraft shouted and pointed at the Mechanical Bird on the table.

The Mechanical Bird did not move at all. None of the sound and light effects from the dream appeared.

"Why did it fail?!"

Unwilling to accept it, Kraft tried several more times. Unfortunately, neither the Mechanical Birds he had made before nor the new Mechanical Dog he had made showed any reaction.

"Damn it! Was I wrong? Or does America’s soil not support Mohist mechanical arts?"

Not willing to give up so easily, Kraft changed his approach and began experimenting with magic.

He also guessed that perhaps he could not yet master methods that required mysterious powers to empower them. Like Professor Agasa’s inventions, he needed something that could be directly manufactured into a finished product.

After thinking it over, the only thing in the magic system that seemed to meet those conditions was brewing potions. Although the laboratory had substitutes for most of the necessary tools, it was best to stay as close as possible to the original equipment from the dream when dealing with something so mystical. Besides, he did not have the ingredients for potion-making here and would need to buy them again.

There was no use being anxious now. He should fill his stomach first.

Kraft rubbed his stomach, which was making one protesting noise after another, and finally calmed down. After all that fussing around, it was almost noon. Not only had he skipped breakfast, but he had also skipped his morning classes.

As Kraft took out the food the old women had given him, he called Fatty Liao.

"Hello, David, it’s me."

Kraft said indistinctly through a mouthful of rice cake.

"I lost track of time doing experiments and only just remembered that I had class today. But the experiment isn’t finished yet, so I won’t be coming in this afternoon either. Help me ask the teacher for leave."

Even without the earlier incident involving Tony Stark, Kraft did not need to care too much about school rules, given Martin Lee’s status as a school board member. However, he was not someone who took kindness for granted, so he still called Fatty Liao to let him know.

After the call, Kraft quickly devoured all the food, then immediately headed out to buy the tools and ingredients he needed for potion-making.

The tools for brewing potions were not particularly complicated, but many of the ingredients used in most potions came from magical creatures Kraft had never even heard of. He searched for a long time before finding a potion whose ingredients could be gathered on Earth. Kraft combed through all of Chinatown and even visited a reptile pet store before finally collecting everything.

"Dried toad, lizard tail, ink cap mushroom…"

Following the proper order, Kraft added the ingredients one by one into an ancient-looking cauldron.

Cauldrons were indispensable in many chemical experiments, so Kraft did not lack them. However, modern scientific crucibles differed greatly from the cauldrons used in medieval magical worlds. To be safe, Kraft found one that was more similar. He had dug this thing out of an antique shop under Martin’s name.

Following the potion-brewing process from his dream, Kraft stirred while muttering incantations like the witch from the dream. After more than an hour, he finally finished brewing the potion called "Slick Potion."

After pouring the potion into a prepared beaker, Kraft removed his mask and fell into thought.

In a burst of excitement, he had brewed the potion. Now the question was…

Who was supposed to drink this thing?

Kraft brought his nose close to the beaker and gave it a light sniff…

"Blech…"

The smell shot straight to his brain and nearly made him vomit everything he had eaten for lunch.

"Something’s wrong! The Slick Potion in the dream didn’t smell like this…"

In Kraft’s dream, the Slick Potion had been used by that witch to beautify her skin. After brewing it, she had eagerly drunk it. Out of curiosity, Kraft had also dipped a finger into the leftover potion and tasted it. Though it had tasted a little strange, it absolutely had not given off the rotten stench of the one before him.

"Looks like it failed again…"

After mentally preparing himself for a long time, Kraft still did not have the courage to try the strange liquid before him. In the end, he poured it into the waste disposal barrel.

"What a waste of excitement…"

Besides the potion, Kraft still refused to give up and tested several other wondrous creations from his dreams. The results remained far from ideal. Exhausted, Kraft lay on the laboratory floor and sighed helplessly.

"So Professor Agasa’s inventions really were purely scientific creations?"

If creations involving mysterious powers could not be replicated, then the Power-Enhancing Shoes and Bowtie Voice Changer must not have contained any mysterious power.

"Is it because the laws of physics differ between worlds or something? Then why can I replicate them?"

Although being able to wield this strange power was a good thing, Kraft was still curious about the exact reason behind it. He wanted to find someone to test whether only he could create these unscientific scientific inventions. But doing so could easily expose what made him special, and Kraft had no intention of spreading these more miraculous gadgets around anyway. In the end, he chose not to pursue the matter further.

Zhongyuan finally learned to hold back his claws when beating me up… QAQ