The Legendary Junkmaster

Jason opted to send Harry home for now. There was no point in him hanging around if customers were too scared to come to the store. Sam's goons never left their position and always kept an eye on Star Gear. Jason currently sat waiting for the Adhesive and Naturally Compressed Gas to finish forming.

'Come on, at least one of you has to hit the E Rank!' Jason was in desperate need of PP at this point. With the Red Steel Gang intent on taking control of his business, Jason had felt a surge of anger that was more intense than anything he had ever felt before. 'I have to send them a warning to back off. Preferably without them realising that it's me.'

Jason drummed his fingers on the metal worktop as he stared at the glass containers. 'A ranged weapon is definitely the way to go.' Although he did not have the skills to create his idea, he already knew what shape it would take. Apart from the rumoured 'guns', the pinnacle of ranged weaponry right now was bows and arrows.

However, it took a lot of practice to be able to skillfully hit a target. Jason intended to create something similar but was much easier to handle. He would combine his hand crank mechanism with a long stock made of wood. At the tip would be a short bow made of metal instead of wood. The hand crank would allow him to create a higher degree of tension in the string by having the force to actually bend the metal.

'I just need one good shot that can prove to Sam her guards are useless to protect her. There's no point in trying to acquire my business if she has to pay for it with her life.' Jason smiled as he thought about that. Over the past two days, Jason had purchased dark clothing and animal parts to create a light armour for himself during their standoff.

In the corner of the workshop stood a mannequin that wore the ensemble that he had put together. It wore a knee-length coat made from the fur of a Volska. Which was a beast that had evolved from wolves. The hood of the coat was raised over the mannequins head where Jason's gas mask covered the face.

A bandolier with holders for his weapon's ammunition was strapped across the mannequin's chest with a few pouches to hold the various medicines he had created. He had opted for a pair of black soft left cargo pants and his military boots for the bottom half. These clothes were currently being treated with waxes made from the flowers to increase their toughness.

He had chosen the colour black since he would have to carry out his plan during the dark of night. It would be the best chance for him to go undetected. He knew that certain tracking abilities existed, so the perfume would also come in handy. 'I'm just missing a few key skills.'

Jason sighed as he continued to wait. Any moment now should be the point when these two items in front of him would finally be ready. Ten minutes had to pass before Syssie finally confirmed that they were ready.

"What one do you want me to evaluate first?"

"Does it really matter? As long as one of them gives us what we need, then it's all good." Jason replied with a concerned tone. His plans would be for nothing if he fell short at this stage. He could not afford to let this situation continue for too long. Otherwise, the business would go bankrupt.

"Evaluation… E Rank utility item suitable for Novices that uses biological materials to create a basic adhesive. Value estimated at two copper credits per one hundred millilitres. I'll just tag this as BNA for Basic Natural Adhesive." Syssie said sarcastically, knowing Jason's naming sense.

Jason slammed his fist on the worktop! "Fuck!"

The first evaluation hit the threshold that he needed, but he only received the first creation bonus for the first hundred millilitres. That, combined with the points for the rest of it, ended up netting him only three PP.

Jason's hopes had just been dashed. If this was the standard for these kinds of creations, he no longer hoped to make a bunch of PP off of the compressed gas either.

"Evaluation… E Rank utility item suitable for Novices that uses biological materials to create a basic natural compressed gas. Value estimated at thirty copper credits per litre." Syssie continued after seeing Jason's reaction.

Jason hissed as he heard that and spun to face her with a wild look in his eyes. "Did I hear that right? Thirty copper credits?"

"Yeah, congrats. I guess you have enough PP now. I'll just tag this as BCNG and file it away." Syssie chuckled at Jason, who had instantly turned to his interface to confirm it.

His eyes went wide in disbelief as he confirmed that he did indeed have thirty-three PP to spend now! 'Thank god! I thought it was all over there!' Jason's heart still hammered his chest from the fear of having come close to failing.

'Let's get what I need!' Jason had already planned what skills he wanted, and luckily enough, he had earned more PP than what he actually needed. He quickly picked up the Basic Physics and Basic Mechanics skills for a total of eighteen PP.

The pair went through the usual ritual of receiving an intense headache as the knowledge was crammed into Jason's brain. He could only laugh this time since Syssie did not get any enjoyment since neither of the new skills was related to the System. 'This is how it should be!'

Jason took a deep breath and quickly sorted through the knowledge that he obtained. Complex calculations to do with force, speed and other things combined with the new mechanical understanding gave him schematics of things he could make. He thought about a few parameters that he wanted to set, and to his surprise, a schematic appeared of the weapon he had already envisioned.

He was even more shocked to discover that it was actually called an arbalest. Which was the same project name he had given to Syssie before. Jason felt stumped when he saw this. He believed that it was a name that he had come up with on the fly. Did this mean his subconscious was subtly feeding information to him? Working around the restrictions that Syssie placed on his powers?

Jason shivered as he thought about that. If that was the case, maybe it meant that Syssie was already degrading and unable to hold everything back. Would it just get worse until he managed to upgrade her? 'Shit! We should still have plenty of time left! What's going on with this?'

"It's as you've guessed." Syssie sighed from the side, having heard his thoughts. "It'll definitely get worse the longer we take to fix me up. Forget it for now. Focus on what you need to. Otherwise, we won't last long enough to really worry about it."

Jason stared at her helplessly for a moment before deciding that she was right. They had to make it through their current problem before concerning themselves with their future. Jason's mind focused on the schematic and realised that he would need to use the compressed gas to create his new weapon and subsequent ammunition.

Jason grinned from ear to ear before setting up the workshop to make his newest toy. Luckily, he had already bought a wealth of materials beforehand just for this moment. A burst of crazed laughter could be heard by the goons waiting outside of Star Gear from time to time. From beneath the door, the leader could see flashes of bright light. A worried frown crossed his expression as he tried to guess what was going on inside.

"You two. Go and report this to the young miss. It might be nothing, but we shouldn't underestimate him." The man's frown deepened as the flashes stopped, and banging sounds could be heard from inside. It was the kind of sound he was used to hearing whenever he checked in on Al's store.

To him, this was the sound of a weapon being made. If it was Al, he would not be worried. His creations were good enough but simple in their design. However, Jason was a cause for concern. The Primal alone was enough to make this man worry about what would come from his store next. He could not help but swallow a lump of saliva as he broke out in a nervous sweat.

'I hope we didn't end up stomping on the tiger's tail…'

Meanwhile, Jason was feeling excited in his workshop as the components for the arbalest slowly took shape. In his opinion, this should be the most lethal weapon in Highrise if you removed any abilities from consideration. No matter what, he had to make sure that nobody caught wind of its creation process.