Then he smiled after the momentary shock.
"Rion, can you transfer me back to the virtual server?" he asked.
"Yes, Master Silas," Rion replied in his mind.
"Wow, you can talk now."
He had always found reading the texts on the screen tiring.
"Send me there," he said.
Silas's form flickered, appearing in the virtual server only a moment later.
"Do you know the location to any public laboratory in our server?" he asked.
"A moment," Rion replied, going quiet for a moment.
Silas casually nodded before walking towards the stores lined up everywhere in the server.
Previously, due to his limited time, he never explored the server, only going to the library.
"I should get a few materials to make the gun," he pondered.
Various people walked past him. Although they were all humans, their physiques said otherwise.
Some of them had blue veins that glowed through their skin.
Silas looked at them, then shook his head.
"Master Silas, there is a lab about 10 minutes away. I will direct you," Rion replied.
"Okay, thank you."
He walked into one of the stores.
The store was small. Only about five workers were there, each one in a section of the store.
There were no goods, only lists of what was available in the store.
Silas made his way towards the material section.
"Good day, sir. How may I help you?" One of the workers, donned in a black skirt and a white shirt, quickly approached him.
Silas pondered for a few minutes before replying.
"How much is a Common-tier aether battery?" he asked.
"That is 2,000 credits," she replied quickly.
Silas's gaze narrowed.
'So expensive,' he thought.
His salary, that once looked high in his mind, suddenly felt small.
"Just give me two batteries," Silas said after consideration.
She spoke to her AI assistant mentally.
[A trade has been initiated by XXX. Do you wish to accept?]
[Trade contents: 2 Common-tier aether batteries.]
[Cost: 4,000 credits]
The messages flashed in Silas's face and he accepted immediately.
He heard the debit alert of the credit deduction at the same time.
"Do you need anything else, sir?" the lady asked.
"Yes, some…"
Silas listed everything he needed for the creation of two rifles.
"The total is 7,580 credits, sir."
She initiated the transfer and Silas accepted, feeling a pang of pain in his chest.
"10,000 credits down to 420 in just one day. No wonder those scientists are always poor," he wondered aloud as he walked out of the store.
His destination was clear: the public research lab in their sector server.
Under Rion's guidance, he walked through the crowd.
As he walked further, he noticed that the people passing had begun to reduce, but he did not pay too much attention to it.
'It is probably because of the research institute here,' he guessed.
Soon, he saw the research institute.
He reached the gate, a symbolic and regal structure that stood imposingly between the outside world and the institute.
Silas walked further, looking through the gate.
He saw the internal part, a huge fortress spanning thousands of miles at a single glance. Some towers shot into the sky, stretching farther than his eyes could see.
The walls were painted in a gold-like color that shone brightly, but still dim enough for anyone to stare at for as long as they wanted.
"What do you want here?" A guard suddenly approached him, his expression stern and disciplined.
Silas quickly projected his Tier 1 Scientist ID.
The guard looked at the ID, his eyes widening as the thought of what he had just done dawned on him.
"Good afternoon, sir," he quickly greeted Silas.
Although he was visibly stronger and older than Silas, he had no choice but to respect the Tier 1 scientist.
Silas waved it off as he walked through the gate that opened for him as soon as his identity was verified.
No one was inside. The place felt desolate, like no life was allowed there.
Not even the tiniest sound was heard in the place.
"How do I even know where I can work?" Silas wondered, seeing as there was no one to help him.
"There should be an administrative office to the left," Rion said.
"Oh, thank you."
Silas soon reached the administrative office, a big office that took half of the wing.
Walking in, he saw a man casually reading a book.
Before he could walk further, a robot approached him, asking him to show him the list of available labs.
Even the labs were ranked based on the equipment and space.
Bronze, Silver, and Gold.
Their costs were also written boldly in front of them.
[Bronze — 50 credits/hour]
[Silver — 500 credits/hour]
[Gold — 3,000 credits/hour]
[Note: In all labs, your room is constantly being monitored to avoid the creation of anything dangerous. But none of your methods, blueprints, or formulas will be used by the human race.]
Silas read through everything calmly.
He understood the reason for the monitoring, so he did not bother with it since they had promised not to release anything.
Then the prices.
The difference between a Bronze and Gold lab was a staggering 60×.
Not to talk of the Gold, he couldn't even afford the Silver lab.
"I am really poor," Silas muttered as he booked a single Bronze lab for four hours.
The robot sent something to Rion, which shocked Silas.
'How was it able to access Rion directly?' he wondered.
"Master Silas, you don't need to worry. This institute is controlled by the Empire directly, so the purchase is sent the same way you receive direct messages from the Empire," Rion explained in his mind.
He nodded calmly, walking out of the office.
He began to walk through the labs towards the one he had paid for.
He thought of the man who was sitting in the office but did not even acknowledge his presence.
'Scientists are truly prideful,' he thought, remembering the words of one of his teachers.