Overworld.
With an excited heart, Yang Tao extended his trembling hands and placed a diamonds, four Glowstone Dust, and four Redstone Dust into the crafting table.
A burgundy Philosopher's Stone, burning with orange-red flames, appeared in the output slot of the crafting table.
Yang Tao excitedly took the Philosopher's Stone from the output slot, practically wanting to kiss it.
The Philosopher's Stone is the most core item in Equivalent Exchange.
It has many uses and can convert into various vanilla resources.
"First, let's craft the basic Transmutation Tablet..."
The basic Transmutation Tablet only requires a Philosopher's Stone, stone, and obsidian, making the materials extremely 'cheap.' One could say that on the first day, as long as one is lucky enough to find a diamonds, a Transmutation Tablet can be crafted.
The process went smoothly without any surprises, and Yang Tao crafted two of them, even throwing one into the other Transmutation Tablet.
Seeing the 260 EMC value displayed, Yang Tao chuckled, thinking, '260... so cheap.'
EMC is the 'price' in Equivalent Exchange; for example, a piece of cobblestone costs 1 EMC. So, Yang Tao would only need to mine 260 pieces of cobblestone and place them into the Transmutation Tablet to 'buy' a Transmutation Tablet.
Of course, conversely, placing one Transmutation Tablet can 'buy' 260 pieces of cobblestone, but this requires the Transmutation Tablet to record it once.
Next was a highly nested process: using the Philosopher's Stone and four coals to synthesize Alchemical Coal, then using four Alchemical Coals to synthesize Mobius Fuel.
Then, using four Mobius Fuels, he synthesized a white, yet golden-glowing, Aeternalis Fuel.
Looking at the EMC value in the Transmutation Tablet, Yang Tao immediately ran to the warehouse, took out a stack of gold ingots, and placed them into the Transmutation Tablet, but bad news came.
The Transmutation Tablet's EMC value actually has a cap.
"This is a bit unfriendly..."
A cap of one billion EMC value is indeed a bit of a pitfall.
However, he could put all the materials in and convert them into level six Klein Stars to store in chests.
A single level six Klein Star is worth 25,1C.
After going back and forth crafting various materials, it finally took him over an hour to craft the abyssal set and Red Matter Katar from Equivalent Exchange.
The abyssal set only provides high damage reduction; it's not invincibility. If the damage is high enough, he will still lose health and die...
However, the prerequisite is 'high' damage.
At least, besides those code-killing mod monsters, Yang Tao had truly never seen many that could kill the abyssal set.
Wearing the abyssal set, Yang Tao felt an unprecedented sense of security.
Compared to the Quantum Suit, the abyssal set's defense is more comprehensive; at least, he doesn't have to worry about being taken out by some sudden magic damage.
Touching the Red Matter Katar in his hand, Yang Tao pondered, 'I feel like killing something...'
The Red Matter Katar is very short, only about thirty centimeters in overall length. When not charged, it is dark red. After four charges, the fist sword turns bright red, and even in a digitized state, no one would want to be struck by this thing.
The Red Matter Katar is the top-tier attack weapon of Equivalent Exchange, a combination of tool and weapon, more efficient than individual Red Matter Tools.
However, its base damage is extremely low.
It has 24 base damage, which increases with charge level, adding one per level, up to a maximum of 28 damage.
But it comes with an extremely wide-range attack skill. The cooldown of the area attack depends on the user's attack speed, and can reach unlimited continuous area attacks.
One strike can cause 1000 armor-piercing damage, though it cannot break through resistance-boosting states, but this is already sufficient.
Weapons and armor have been crafted, so now it's time to craft another important item.
Energy Collector MK3
This is the highest-tier energy collector; it continuously produces EMC even without brightness, but with lower efficiency.
However... placing torches to increase illumination can speed up collection. And tools that accelerate time, like the Acceleration Torch, can be used to increase collection efficiency.
Maximum efficiency: 40 EMC/s
He spent some Glowstone blocks, diamonds blocks, glass, and a furnace to craft the MK1, then began the nesting process to craft the final MK3.
Yang Tao wanted to place the MK3 in his hand on the ground to see the effect, but he couldn't place it. This situation left him a bit confused.
"Can't earn, only spend? Is it that much of a scam?"
[Energy Collector MK3]
Maximum Efficiency: 40 Energy Value/s
[Cannot be used in a digitized world]
"Cannot be used in a digitized world? This... Wait, Energy Value?? Not EMC???"
The difference between these two is just too great.
Without any hesitation, Yang Tao immediately flew towards the Mist Wall, looking at the wooden door on the wall. After a moment of hesitation, Yang Tao still chose to go to the Backrooms Level! The 'Run For your Life' level.
Passing through the bustling transit station, as more and more M.E.G. members arrived, the usage rate of keys also increased.
He pushed open Level!, which no one had opened for a long time, entering this level that he once found very valuable.
Upon arriving here, there was no sound around except for the current hum from the red emergency lights. The once dense Entity monsters had become history.
The empty corridor was still spotless. The last time he came, he had already cleared out the cluttered hospital beds, cabinets, and other items in the hallway.
He took out the Energy Collector MK3 and placed it on the ground. This time, there was no issue with placement; the Energy Collector MK3 disappeared from his hand and appeared on the ground.
The casing made of Glowstone emitted a bright light, and countless strange particles appeared in the air, merging into the energy pool above, which was transformed from Red Matter.
The surrounding walls seemed to be losing their color...
Yang Tao's energy value began to steadily increase at a rate of 40/s.
'Plunder!'
Seeing the increasingly ethereal corridor around him, this word popped into Yang Tao's mind.
This wasn't digitization; it was simply transforming the matter of this world into the most basic energy, which was then collected by the energy value collector.
'Oh no! I've really become a plunderer!'
Fortunately, Level! was already abandoned. Otherwise, if it were any other owned level, the Level Master would have already jumped out to fight him to the death.
Not fighting to the death wouldn't be an option either; given enough time, no world could withstand such absorption.
Yang Tao suddenly thought of Level 0, the level said to be three times the area of Earth.
No Level Master!
But he quickly dismissed this idea. Instead of harming Level 0, it would be better to explore 'dead zones' like 'Red Soil.'
Pondering to himself, he then took out an Acceleration Torch from his backpack and placed it next to the energy collector.
"No effect?"
The Acceleration Torch's efficiency was set to 400%, but the energy collector's value was still 40/s.
Helpless.
With a gentle wave of the Building Staff, a cluster of energy value collectors appeared in the hallway.
The next moment, everything in the hallway turned into nothingness and disappeared.