"Ah — a genuine serum formula?"
Ryan feigned bewilderment, his face twisted with mock frustration. "The rest of it, Teacher... there were too many symbols I didn't recognize, and my memory of it got a bit jumbled..."
Had this happened a few days earlier, he genuinely wouldn't have understood something this complex.
But now, counting the time spent in his dreams, he'd effectively covered two or three months' worth of an ordinary person's theoretical study. He still had zero hands-on experience refining serums, but he could recognize these equation symbols and material abbreviations well enough.
Pisces was practically itching, though he didn't dare push too hard, his expression souring. "You... can't remember the rest?"
For a serum master, a formula was practically their lifeblood!
It was like owning several properties back on Earth — an absolute hard asset, the kind that could earn money just sitting there.
Whether for advancement exams or for refining and selling serums, the number of formulas a serum master held was their core competitive edge.
Even an ordinary Black Iron formula could fetch a fortune — let alone a Golden-grade one that could be traded directly for a noble title.
...
Ryan put on his most innocent expression. "I'm sorry, Teacher. Those symbols were just so strange — I'd never seen so many of them before... I don't even know how to write them out properly."
"..."
Pisces's face twitched violently at that.
*We agreed on the uncensored full version, and I already dropped my pants — and now you're telling me it's the censored, blurred-out edition?*
But after a moment's thought, he reconsidered: this room really did only contain the basic texts. It had only been a few days — his so-called disciple couldn't even be said to have completed the fundamentals yet. How much serum knowledge could he really have absorbed?
Besides, something as sensitive as a serum formula would naturally be kept in his own storage ring. Having never actually seen the reaction equation, there was no realistic way the boy could reproduce it from nothing.
With treasure sitting right in front of him, there was no way anyone was giving up that easily.
"Sigh..."
After a moment's thought, Pisces let out a small sigh and pulled a densely written sheet of parchment from his storage ring.
Unrolled, it turned out to be the detailed formula for the first-stage gene serum, Master Thief.
Written on it was a complete reaction equation.
He meant to use it as a reference for Ryan.
Pisces pointed at the formula and explained, "The standard equation for a serum formula generally goes like this. This symbol means 'purification,' this one is 'extraction,' then 'heating'... and finally 'fusion'... your formula should have similar symbols somewhere in it. Of course, yours must be far more complex than this."
As he spoke, he began walking Ryan through how to parse the equation, hoping to help him "remember" the rest of the formula.
Sure enough, at this, Ryan's face lit up as if in sudden realization. "Oh, Teacher, I think I'm remembering more of it now!"
And then he neatly filled in another seventy or eighty percent of the formula.
Of course, the system chime rang out as well.
【Ding! New serum formula detected. Automatically recorded by the system...】
Just a little more!
With the complete formula practically within reach, even a calculating old fox like Pisces could no longer feign composure. "And the rest — can you recall any more of it?"
The sultry dancer had, at last, stripped down to nothing but a final scrap of cloth.
But Ryan kept the tension deliciously drawn out, forcing an expression of difficulty. "Teacher, the formula in my head is just so complicated — a lot of it doesn't quite match this formula of yours..."
"..."
Hearing this, Pisces's old face twitched again.
After a moment's hesitation, he simply pulled three more formulas from his storage ring all at once.
A closer look revealed them to be the first-stage Trickster and Elemental Apprentice formulas, and even a second-stage Silver-grade formula: Convict.
These three belonged, respectively, to the Assassin, Caster, and Fighter lines — each worth a small fortune.
Between the three of them, the specialized symbols covered nearly ninety percent of everything used in serumcraft.
He couldn't be certain which category Ryan's Golden formula belonged to, so he figured he might as well lay them all out at once.
Besides — a formula this complex couldn't possibly be stolen without transcribing it word for word, character for character. And really, what harm could a dead man walking do with a bit of theft?
The moment the formulas were laid out, three system chimes rang out one after another in Ryan's mind.
【Ding! Unknown serum formula detected — recorded.】
【Ding! Unknown serum formula detected — recorded.】
【Ding! Unknown serum formula detected — recorded.】
"Oh... I'm remembering a bit more now..."
Ryan kept his expression neutral, as if genuinely recalling something, and added a bit more to the page.
As he wrote, Pisces's eyes beside him practically bulged out of his skull.
The old man kept praying inwardly — *just a little more, just a little more... write it all out, damn it!*
Now that things had come this far, Ryan knew: the moment had come.
...
With three new formulas laid before him, Ryan indeed "remembered" a great deal more. He bent over the page, filling in the formula — but then, abruptly, as if something had just occurred to him, he stopped writing.
*???*
Pisces's heart lurched like a scratching cat, and he shot Ryan a look.
*Did he forget again?*
But at that moment, Ryan asked a question, heavy with meaning: "Teacher Pisces... would you say the Zombie Serum formula is just as complicated as these?"
At last, he'd revealed his true purpose.
Getting his hands on a cure quickly and leaving the Weasel Bandit Gang — this was a risk he had to take.
And even if this broke the pretense wide open right here and now, he was confident Pisces wouldn't kill him on the spot — the old man would keep feeding and housing him comfortably instead.
After all, sheer greed wouldn't let this old man settle for just one Golden formula.
"..."
He could always claim the finished cure didn't exist — but he could hardly refuse to even show the formula, could he?
As if he'd just been checkmated at chess, Pisces's pupils contracted sharply — though he masked it just as quickly.
So this was the boy's real goal.
The little fox had finally shown its tail. He understood at once exactly why Ryan had chosen today, of all days, to write out this Golden formula.
Heh. A clever young man, thinking himself quite sharp.
Still, this was only mildly surprising — nowhere near enough to make him feel the situation had slipped out of his control.
And besides, the arithmetic here was obvious enough: trading a Golden formula for a cure's formula was a deal that favored him regardless.
"Heh heh..."
A flash of malice crossed his face and vanished, and just as Ryan had predicted, Pisces didn't fly into a rage. Instead, he smiled and pulled out another formula. "The cure's formula is nowhere near as complex as a serum's. Here — take a look. This is the cure formula for the Zombie Serum..."
Heh. Fool.
Did the boy really think alchemy was so simple that having the formula meant you could just brew the cure?
So what if he saw it?
Pisces felt confident — without a year or more of hands-on training, even a genius couldn't refine a serum, not even with the materials and formula laid out right in front of him.
As far as he was concerned, this little "move" of Ryan's only proved his foolish shortsightedness — nothing more.
...
Seeing the cure's formula at last — exactly as he'd hoped.
Ryan gave a faint smile, an odd sense of satisfaction settling over him.
Watching an enemy squirm with annoyance, unable to do a damn thing about it — that, it turned out, was deeply satisfying.
But in the next moment, to Pisces's surprise, Ryan gave the formula only the briefest glance and then looked away, as if entirely uninterested.
That left Pisces second-guessing his own read on the situation. Had he guessed wrong after all? Did the kid genuinely just want a look?
"Oh, Teacher, I remember it now! I remember the whole formula!"
With the system having already recorded the full Zombie Serum cure formula, Ryan saw no reason to keep stringing the old man along any further, and simply wrote out the complete formula in one go.
A formula that any other serum master would treasure as priceless — to him, in his current circumstances, was nothing more than scrap paper.
"This... this really is a Golden formula!"
Looking at the completed formula, whatever doubt had begun creeping into Pisces's mind vanished at once, replaced by unrestrained, giddy delight.
Hadn't he risked everything to infiltrate this filthy bandit gang precisely for the sake of trading merit for three-star serum-advancement knowledge?
And now, this Golden formula alone was enough to trade a senior serum master out of vastly more resources.
He'd struck it rich!
At the same time, the look he gave Ryan turned strange. Clearly — this boy still had other formulas in his head, or something even more valuable.
The kid always did seem to be up to something, but there was no way he could be killed now.
Heh. Just wait two more days...
Then it would be time to settle accounts!
...
Just then, Ryan seemed to recall something else and spoke up again. "Oh, Teacher, one more piece of good news."
Pisces raised an eyebrow. "What?"
*Another formula, perhaps?*
Just as the old man's hopes began to rise, Ryan said, "When the chief came by earlier, he asked how I was doing, whether I needed anything... so I mentioned that Teacher needed some Thousand-Year Mummy Skull Powder for refining..."
*A knife in the back!*
At those words, Pisces's expression went cold in an instant.
He'd kept Ryan locked away in the lab precisely so outsiders would have no chance to contact him — whatever he claimed to be short of would simply stay that way. And yet somehow this chief, Quinn, had managed to come by anyway...
Well, that was that. One small slip undoing all his careful precautions.
Seemingly oblivious to the old man's darkening expression, Ryan added, blithely, "The chief said they might have some in stock — once they find it, they'll send it over to us..."
"Oh?"
Pisces's eye twitched. Having already said what he'd said, there was no plausible excuse left to fall back on now.
He kept his expression composed. "Ah... well, that really is good news. Once the chief sends the materials over, I'll brew you a cure..."
Even knowing he'd been outmaneuvered a second time, the man who now held a Golden formula in hand still felt little real anger over it.
After all, the Weasel Bandit Gang wouldn't last more than a few more days regardless.
Even if the boy got his cure, there was no way he'd be walking out of here alive.
*Hmph! Give it two more days — once I've wrung the secret out of you, I'll flay the skin right off your bones!*