Chapter 1: Black Tech Workshop
At the present time, a young man no older than eighteen could be seen inside what looked to be a clean massive room with walls as white as pure snow, the floor was tiled with clean polished silver plates, and the same could be said for the ceiling.
The young man had slightly pale skin, along with smooth silver hair and a pair of pale icy blue eyes that were sharpened at the edges. His clothing was rather unusual though, he looked to be wearing a bluish-black body suit with various glowing circuitry lines running along the limbs.
Over the top of this body suit, the male had on a short-sleeved open white vest with a sharp hood attached and appeared to be lined with blue colors. To go with this, he also had a pair of matching tall boots as well as sleek metallic gauntlets that shared a similar color palette.
From what could be seen, the male was currently standing over what looked to be a large mechanical desk with what looked to be a high-end welding tool firmly grasped in his right hand. He was using it on the strange device that was safely secured on the desk using various clamps.
As the male used the welding tool, countless sparks flew around.
Fortunately, the male was wearing a white mechanical mask with a v-shaped black visor, which obviously prevented any of the sparks from flying into his face. The rest of his clothing did its part as well, the sparks merely bounced off harmlessly when they landed.
"And... there." After a few quick moments, the young man pulled the welding tool away from the device before placing it down elsewhere on the table. Reaching for his mask, he pulled it off with a simple pull before he flicked his hair to the side. "System, proceed with the evaluation."
『Evaluating creation』
『Please standby』
『...』
『Evaluation complete』
As soon as the robotic voice sounded, a holographic screen seemed to appear instantly in front of the young man's face. Not flinching in the slightest, he looked over the various details on the screen with a critical look in his eyes.
.
『Pyrus Compound Bow』
● Grade: Rare
● Total Price: 530,000 Mora
Modules:
● Transformer - [Description: The bow can be transformed into a more compact form by pressing one of the buttons] [Grade: ★★☆☆☆]
● Grappling Hook I - [Description: By pressing a button on the bow, it will fire out a small grappling hook that can easily hold and pull more than 100kg] [Grade: ★☆☆☆☆]
● Fire Amplifier I - [Description: When fire-based energy is infused into this weapon, the effect of said fire will be increased by 50%] [Grade: ★☆☆☆☆]
.
"Only a Rare grade, huh?" The young man saw the information before giving a small sigh. Rubbing the back of his head, he picked up the bow before pulling on the handle, causing the mechanical string to pull back. "Feels pretty good in my hands, though perhaps making it a bit lighter would be a good idea... Whatever, I should finish up with the fridge."
After some thinking, he merely sighed again before gently placing the bow back down on the table before he walked off elsewhere.
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"Do you hear that?"
"You mean that banging noise?"
"Yeah, where in the world is it coming from?"
Over the past two days, the citizens of Mondstadt had been in a state of confusion as various strange sounds seemed to be resonating through a certain area within the city. The noise came in different forms, such as the clashing of metal and the like.
At first, no one really paid much attention to it and assumed that the noise would eventually come to a stop after a bit of time. However, it seemed as if the very opposite happened, the noise seemed to have increased even further, perhaps even louder as well.
In all honestly, it was starting to really annoy them.
"It really is getting out of hand..." The voice of a certain outrider here within Mondstadt sounded as she walked through the streets. Looking around, she could see the various annoyed looks of the civilians. "That noise is getting louder and louder... I need to get to the bottom of this!"
This young girl was none other than Mondstadt's resident Outrider, her name was Amber. Just like the other people of Mondstadt, she too had taken notice of the strange noises that have been pretty much echoing through the day and night.
Being an Outrider, Amber mostly found herself patrolling outside of the city, mainly on the lookout for things such as potential dangers like hilichurl attacks and such. However, due to the recent situation regarding Stormterror, her time outside of the city was much less than usual.
"What's this place...?" Amber found herself coming to a stop when she noticed a particular building standing out amongst the rest. While the building itself wasn't too different from the rest, the quality and cleanliness of the exterior really attracted her. "Black Tech... Workshop?"
With confusion in her voice, Amber read the sign that was attached above the two entrance doors. Holding her chin in thought, no matter how much she tried to recall, she couldn't remember ever encountering or even hearing about this shop.
"Wait, was this building even here before?" Amber blinked as this came to mind. Though, she soon shook her head before deciding to approach. "Well, I might as well take a look at this place..."
Curiously, Amber pushed open the doors before walking inside. When she did, she was confused by what she saw, there didn't appear to be anything interesting in the place... or at all. The room was just a clean but empty room with white walls and polished wooden floorboards.
"Hm, what's that?" Amber blinked as she noticed what looked to be a strange metal platform located at the opposite end of the room. Walking over, she looked down at it curiously. "Stand on the platform and press the button. Welcome to the Black Tech Workshop..."
Those words were what was written on a small plaque on the wall, Amber could only tilt her head in confusion upon reading it. Looking down, she did see the button it was referring to, a round silver button attached to the wall of the building.
"Here goes..." With some hesitation, Amber pushed the button. Immediately after, she found herself being lowered deeper into the ground. Looking down in a panic, she saw that it was the metal platform that was being lowered. "What is this?!"
Looking up, she soon found that a new platform had soon taken the place of the one she was currently on. Thankfully, it wasn't complete darkness as she descended. The walls around her as the platform lowered were entirely made of metal and had lights shining behind walls of glass.
'I'm getting nervous...' Amber couldn't help but gulp a bit as she waited. She had no idea where it was she was being brought to, so she was justifiably nervous at the moment. "Wait a second, that sound... is it coming from this place?"
The more Amber found herself being lowered, the louder those loud noises became. Considering this, she couldn't help but wonder if wherever it was she was being taken was the source of all the recent noise. Whatever the case, she was about to find out.
The ride wasn't too long at all, Amber soon found the platform slowing down before coming to a complete stop with a small thud sound. Looking forward, Amber saw that she was now looking at a pair of metal doors that soon began to open horizontally by themselves.
"Here goes..." Amber quietly and carefully began moving through the doors, peeking her head out and into the new room. When she did, Amber could only widen her eyes with unconcealed shock. "What is this?! Has this been under Mondstadt the entire time?!"
In a state of confusion and disbelief, Amber fully walked out of the elevator before looking around at the massive lit-up room. Looking around, she saw all kinds of mechanical equipment neatly organized in various locations in the room.
Amber wasn't at all familiar with any of the objects around her, her highest experience when it came to anything that had to do with machines was those ruin guards. Even then, her experience when it came to fighting against them wasn't big either.
"Can I help you?"
"Eh?"
Amber, upon hearing the voice, looked around in a panic before finally noticing the strange sizzling noise. She had been so distracted with looking around that she didn't even register the noise! Soon enough, Amber looked up, finally locking eyes with the person who spoke.
Sitting on top of what looked to be a rather large and strange rectangular box was a young man no older than Amber, he had his mask in his hand while staring down at her with a curious look in his eyes.
'Those are some unique clothes...' Amber couldn't help but think as she noticed the strange form of attire the young man was wearing. It was unlike anything she had ever seen, and trust her, she had seen some things. "Who... are you?"
"You can call me Zion, I'm the owner of this workshop." The young man, now identified as Zion, introduced himself calmly as he dropped down from the easily over three-meter tall box. "Welcome to the Black Tech Workshop, how can I help you today?"
"Zion, huh...?" Amber tasted the name and couldn't conclude where he could've possibly come from. The name certainly didn't fit Mondstadt's naming conventions, nor did it fit any other she was aware of. "Oh, right! My name is Amber, Outrider for the Knights of Favonius! I'm here to inquire about all of the noise that your workshop is causing, the citizens are becoming restless due to it!"
"The noise?" Zion blinked before glancing up for a second, he then nodded in understanding. "I see, I guess I have been a tad bit too noisy with all of my work. I apologize for any inconvenience I may have caused. I assure you, I'll have the noise sorted out by the next two hours."
"I-I see, thank you for your cooperation...!" Amber was a bit taken aback by how accepting Zion was of her report of complaints. In any case, she was glad he was going to deal with it, she too found it starting to irritate her. "If I may ask, just what does your workshop do here?"
"The Black Tech Workshop focuses on producing all kinds of electronics, let it be items for everyday convenience, weapons, and the like." Zion explained simply as he gave her a small smile. Amber's ears twitched as her interest was grabbed. "Take this box for example, it's called a fridge. It's basically used to keep things cold, mainly things to do with food."
"A fridge?" Amber blinked as she watched Zion walk on over before easily prying open the large metal doors of the fridge. Immediately, Amber felt a small chill brush against her body. "Woah, that's pretty cold...! This is a fridge?"
For someone who possessed a pyro Vision, Amber was pretty surprised by how this simple-looking box was capable of making her shiver like this. People possessing pyro Visions typically had a stronger resistance to the cold. Curiously, Amber looked inside as she held both of her arms while rubbing up and down.
"So, this thing is used to keep food cold?" Amber asked as she looked at Zion with a curious look on her face. Walking back, Zion closed the door before giving Amber a simple nod in response along with a small 'umu' sound. "But... isn't this overboard? It's kind of big, isn't it?"
Amber sweatdropped as she took a few steps back to look at the massive fridge that was definitely way taller than even a mitachurl, she seriously couldn't understand anyone who would ever need such a massive thing to simply hold their food...
"This one's my personal fridge, I can make smaller ones for my customers." Zion chuckled as he explained this. It wasn't that he was a massive glutton, but he'd rather have a lot of food on hand, and plus, his workshop was more than big enough to hold such a machine. "Would you like to purchase a fridge?"
"Uh, maybe another time." Amber responded. She was being honest here, a box that could keep food cold sounded really useful, it helped prevent a lot of food wastage. Amber soon gained an expectant look on her face though. "You said you also make weapons, right? I'd like to get one!"
After seeing the workshop and the fridge, Amber obviously understood that Zion knew exactly what it was he was doing. With her current weapon, she was hoping to either at least fix or improve her bow, or perhaps even potentially replace it! Obviously, with something better or the same!
"A weapon, huh? Sure, I can do that." Zion nodded after hearing the request. "Any specific kind of weapon you're looking for? A sword? A spear? A gun?"
"A gun? You mean the weapons that the Fatui and those from Fontaine use?" Amber blinked as she heard the last one. She did recall Fontaine having produced weapons, and if she remembered correctly, they were indeed called 'guns'. "...I'd like to get a bow!"
"A bow? Huh, then I might have exactly what you're looking for."
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