Chương 125: Shower of Sparks

"I'm gonna have to bother you again today, Hank..." Vince greeted him with an easy smile. The skilled mechanic had really been a massive help to him lately.

"Don't even mention it. I'm useless when it comes to butchering zombies. Rigging up weapons for you guys is the only way I can pitch in to the fight..." Hank quickly replied, bowing slightly, his tone humble. It was the truth, though. Every spear and tool in the core team's arsenal came straight from his hands. Because of his massive contributions, Ben made sure he was treated like royalty back at the camp.

"What do you need me for this time? Modding that pipe-spear from before?" He looked at the trio, scratching his head in confusion.

"Not a mod. I need you to cut something for me," Vince said, grabbing the heavy spear leaning against the side of the RV.

"This."

"Huh? I've never seen this spear before..." Hank took the weapon from Vince, instantly caught off guard.

"Whoa! This thing is heavy!"

"You're chopping up a weapon this good?" Ben, standing to the side, had never seen Vince's new spear either. At first glance, he thought it was some high-end cosplay prop, but up close, it was obviously the real deal. The fact that Vince had called Hank over to chop it up completely baffled him.

"Is the balance off? Needs a rework?" Ben knew perfectly well how much effort Vince had spent hauling heavy machinery back from Hank's shop just to craft his last custom weapon. Even Claire and Zoe were staring at Vince in utter confusion. While the core squad had seen this spear in action, they were used to Vince pulling bizarre new items out of thin air and never asked questions. Their rule was simple: if it concerned them, he'd tell them; if it didn't, it was none of their business.

But after those last few chaotic fights, Claire and Zoe knew damn well there was nothing wrong with the weapon's balance. In Vince's hands, that spear packed enough kinetic force to one-shot a towering, two-meter-tall mutant zombie! Was he... sacrificing it to make weapons for them? Both women simultaneously remembered their weapon discussion from minutes ago. Realizing what he was about to do, they panicked and rushed to stop him.

"Vince!"" Dage!" They yelled at the exact same time. Hearing each other, they couldn't help but let out a nervous laugh. Pausing for a second, Claire spoke first.

"Vince, I just need a shield. I can literally rig a pot lid myself later. You've been using that spear flawlessly..." Zoe chimed in immediately.

"Yeah, Dage. That spear is way too heavy for us to even wield. Just chop my current pipe down a bit and I'll be fine. Ruining a god-tier weapon like that is a massive waste..." This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work. Standing off to the side, Cody and Seth had absolutely no clue what was going on, watching the scene with blank, bewildered expressions. Hearing their protests, Vince couldn't help but laugh out loud.

He knew they thought he was cannibalizing his own primary weapon to gear them up. They weren't entirely wrong, but they were thinking too small. They only guessed half of it.

"Relax. I know what I'm doing. Do I look like the selfless, self-sacrificing type to you?" Vince reached out and pinched both of their cheeks to calm them down. Strangely enough, whenever he used to pinch Zoe's cheek, she'd scowl and glare at him. This time, her face suddenly flushed beet red.

"Cody, you and Seth go start the generator and hook up the power cables..." Having ordered the two bystanders to make themselves useful, Vince clamped the heavy spear onto the plasma cutter's base. He adjusted it backward, then tapped his finger right at the seam where the bladed spearhead met the shaft.

"Hank, cut it right here..." Seeing Vince acting so confidently, the girls stopped protesting. However, Hank held the cutter's handle, physically unable to bring it down. The razor-sharp blade, the lethal tip, the streamlined joint, and the perfectly uniform texture of the shaft—anyone could see this was forged from a hyper-advanced alloy. It was a literal work of art. Never mind its apocalyptic value; even in the old world, as a pure display piece, this thing would easily fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"I'm really just chopping it?" Though not an artisan of this caliber, he was still a mechanic who respected good craftsmanship. Forcing him to butcher a masterpiece like this felt like a sin. He looked up, shooting a pleading glance at Vince, Claire, and the others. But seeing that none of them were stopping him anymore, he gritted his teeth and pulled the cutter's handle down... SCREEECH— A deafening, ear-piercing grind erupted. Unlike cutting standard steel pipes, Hank had to move incredibly slowly.

The resistance was immense. Instead of the usual shower of orange sparks, a blinding, incredibly dense waterfall of brilliant golden-white sparks exploded from the incision point like a fireworks display. Every single spark crackled mid-air, fracturing into even smaller, blinding pinpricks of light. Even the sound of the saw was deeper, heavier, struggling as if it weren't cutting mortal iron, but something forged from the stars.

The bystanders watched the spectacle in awed silence, the blinding shower of sparks reflecting in their eyes. It took nearly ten agonizing minutes to cut through the four-centimeter-thick shaft. CLANG. The joint connecting the heavy blade to the shaft finally severed, dropping heavily onto the concrete. The fresh cross-section was impossibly smooth, glowing like a dark-red mirror and radiating a blistering heat.

"That is insanely tough. Vince, what the hell is this thing made of...?" Hank pushed the cutter aside, wiping a thick layer of sweat from his forehead. He picked up the severed spearhead from the ground, feeling its dense, heavy weight even through his thick work gloves.

"Uh..." The moment the shrieking saw stopped and the sparks died out, Vince felt his vision dim for a second. Hearing Hank's question, he answered vaguely, "I don't really know. It's just... really durable." As he spoke, he picked up the remaining shaft—which was now effectively a heavy staff—and pulled up its status readout, visible only to him. [Item: "Unnamed"] [Durability: 79/100] [Crystal Slot 1: Impact Crystal (Level 1) (30% Superior)]...

During the cutting process, Vince had discreetly kept a hand on the spear's shaft. He noticed the Durability dropping at a slow, linear, and completely controllable rate. That was the only reason he had boldly let Hank proceed with the amputation. Based on the remaining Durability, it was clear that the structural integrity of weapons generated from the system blueprints was evenly distributed across the entire item—exactly as he had theorized.

From a normal person's perspective, this staff had completely lost its value as a spear. If its "health" was judged solely on its function as a bladed weapon, its Durability should have plummeted to ten or twenty points the second the blade came off. But the system's evaluation metric obviously didn't work like that. Wear and tear on the blade did reduce Durability, but cleanly severing the entire spearhead only caused a proportionate, controlled drop.

The core reason was simple: the amputation didn't destroy its fundamental essence. It was still an Item capable of channeling Crystal abilities!