Finally, at Mu Sicheng's insistence, the matter of the badge was left for Bai Liu to handle on their own.
The highlight of the year's event was weapon renovation.
Charles introduced them to an eccentric-looking weapons modifier. His half-long, unkempt hair was matted with dark machine oil, hanging loosely over a disheveled beard, and his face was so grimy it was impossible to tell his age.
The walls were lined with knives, crosshairs, saw blades, and other oddly shaped tools and semi-finished products. The air reeked of smoke and petrol. On the floor sat a huge furnace with bubbling lava inside.
The reformer pulled a welder's mask over his head and dipped a long hook into the lava, holding a weapon so charred its original shape was unrecognizable.
"Sssszttt!" Black smoke hissed from the molten fire.
Two seconds later, the reformer pulled out the hook—empty. The weapon had melted into the lava.
"Tch." He grunted in displeasure. "Who sent a skill weapon with such a low melting point? It's gone with a single dip!"
The apprentice next to him looked at the lava, tears in his eyes, bouncing up and down. "Master, you could've at least measured the melting point before dipping it! How are we supposed to get weapons out now?"
"If you can't get it out, forget it." The reformer tossed the hook aside and snarled. "If it can't even withstand my Samadhi fire's stone slurry, it's worthless. Useless!"
Mu Ke and the others instinctively stared at the bubbling lava, gripping their weapons tightly.
Dressed in an 80s-90s worker's suit with a thick felt apron, the reformer lifted his greasy hair from the back of his head, set a glowing welding gun against the wall, and glanced back at Bai Liu. "So, you're the ones who want to reform?"
Charles suppressed the urge to leave immediately, nodding haughtily. "It's them."
"Bai Liu, this is the best weapon modifier in the game—General Hua Gan."
Hua Gan hid his iron-hook-shaped eyes behind the grime and hair, scanned the room sternly, and snatched the gloves from Bai Liu's hands before anyone could react.
"This is your skill weapon, right?" Hua Gan asked, but didn't look at Bai Liu. Instead, he plucked a pen-style magnifying spotlight from a drawer, held it to his left eye, and, in his other hand, a sharp-edged knife. Without hesitation, he slashed at the glove's surface.
A hole appeared almost instantly.
Mu Sicheng couldn't help shouting, "Hey! Don't just move around!"
Hua Gan ignored him. His knife moved faster and faster, reshaping Bai Liu's gloves in a few strokes. Then he twisted a needle and thread from his messy hair, licked the needle twice, and stitched carefully.
After a few precise motions, the gloves had shrunk perfectly. Hua Gan tossed them back to Bai Liu and wiped his hands on a towel. "Try them again."
Bai Liu slipped the gloves on. "Much better than before."
The leather now rolled inward, constricting at the knuckles. A slit from the glove's end wrapped neatly around the wrist. It was far more comfortable than the simple modification Charles had given him.
"Worthy of being the best remodeller," Bai Liu murmured in admiration.
Charles removed his hat and curtsied, smiling. "Then I will trouble Mr. Hua."
General Hua waved dismissively.
Once Charles had left, Hua Gan's intensity returned. "My skill? This furnace fire. Samadhi."
The apprentice whispered, "-It's called dissolving forging paste, Master."
Hua Gan smacked him on the back of the head. "You're the only one with a mouth. If I say Samadhi, it's Samadhi! I like Samadhi, don't I?"
"...Yes, sir."
"Good. My skill transformation has two parts. First, shaping—you've seen that. After shaping, the furnace fire sets it. Only weapons that survive the fire can continue as your skill weapon for the tournament."
"During forging, you can add rare materials to increase attributes, like attack power." Hua Gan glanced at Bai Liu's gloves. "For example, these gloves can have metallic satin on top and green goat's sheepskin inside, adding around 2700 defense points."
"But then they'd weigh 120 kg—like carrying a 200-pound man constantly."
Bai Liu blinked. "…Not needed."
Hua Gan continued, "The forging process is up to you—what to add or not. Charles has paid for materials; use them as you wish."
He handed the gloves to Bai Liu. "Bring them to cross the lava."
Bai Liu hesitated. "What if they melt like before?"
"Skill weapons are derived from desire. The purer the desire, the higher the weapon's potential, and the stronger it becomes when quenched in fire."
Hua Gan plunged the gloves into the molten lava without looking back.
"Tzitzit—" A long, loud sizzle echoed. A few soul notes from the wallet inside the gloves burned faintly.
Mu Ke, Mu Sicheng, Liu Jiayi, and Tang Erda exchanged nervous glances.
Liu Jiayi calmly reminded Bai Liu, "Did you forget to take something out?"
Bai Liu pretended to remember, smiling innocently. "Ah, sorry—I forgot your notes."
This one definitely did it on purpose!
Mu Sicheng gritted his teeth, ready to rush at Bai Liu, but Tang Erda stopped him. Liu Jiayi covered her face, and Mu Ke stared blankly at the red cauldron of lava.
Bai Liu's dark, shapeless pupils reflected the pot that had devoured his wallet. Wisps of smoke rose from the scorched notes, curling like the scent of a soul singed by desire.
His soul note was in there, too.
There was something strangely purifying about being quenched—the excess emotion leaching out like water, only to be infused with a more vibrant, rolling, frenzied desire.
Amid the twisting heat and tumbling lava, his soul burned, purging impurities and transforming into a purer vessel of human desire.
General Hua Gan lifted the hook, and at the sight of the gloves resting on it, his head jerked toward Bai Liu. Shock registered across his grimy, scarred face.
The apprentice next to him stared in disbelief. "…Master, Master, this glove… how did it… turn out like this?"
Where the gloves had been torn and puckered, the leather was now smooth, tight, and flawless. A faintly shiny ring of metal encircled the wrist, and a huge hexagonal werewolf-eye pattern etched the back of the hand, flowing with a molten, blood-like shimmer.
The moment the gloves were lifted, less than a third of the lava remained in the pot.
The apprentice, having followed Hua Gan for years, had never seen a forging process capable of swallowing lava into a skill weapon. His words stumbled out: "Master… isn't this lava your skill? How can it be absorbed?"
Hua Gan's gaze darkened. He scowled at Bai Liu. "What have you done?!"
He sensed something was wrong. He had been unconcerned with Bai Liu's team—attacking skills weren't allowed in the lobby, and Hua Gan's own skills were overwhelmingly dominant. But he had never imagined Bai Liu would dare such a desperate gambit during a critical skill weapon modification.
Bai Liu rose unsteadily, slipped the gloves onto his hands, and felt only warmth—never heat. The lava seemed powerless against weapons derived from his desire.
"A soul note is also a coin." He drew a brand-new note from the inner layer of his glove, holding it between his index and middle fingers. The note bore the furious face of General Hua Gan.
Bai Liu smiled. "Just now, Mr. Hua Gan completed his deal with me the moment he took my wallet."
Hua Gan's chest heaved violently. "I've never seen such a greedy skill weapon! Sooner or later, you'll be consumed by your own desire!"
"Maybe that day will come," Bai Liu said with a smile, stepping closer. With his gloves, he forced Hua Gan's hooks away, pinning him in his chair.
"But before that, Mr. General," Bai Liu asked, looking down at him, "can you tell me—what task did the President of the Deer Hunter give you that made a high-and-mighty weapon modifier, normally loyal only to her guild, grovel to serve me and give me a weapon modification?"
Bai Liu's eyes flicked to the young apprentice, shivering as Mu Sicheng maintained a clawed chokehold on the apprentice's throat. "You may lie, but I believe a good master wouldn't want his apprentice to suffer the consequences of lying for him. Don't you think?"
General Hua Gan's eyes snapped shut.
In an instant, the balance of power between hunter and prey reversed.