As everyone knows, Section 13's security is worse than a junkyard dog's. Any random person could casually bypass their defenses and stroll right into the core.
He hadn't watched all of *Jackie Chan Adventures* when he was a kid, and the broadcast order back then had been a mess, which made recalling the exact details quite difficult.
"It seems to be a machine developed by a doctor named Kepler or something. Its location shouldn't be far from where Jade and the others live in Section 13."
Relying on his memory, Zenith strolled through Section 13 as if he owned the place. He even took a moment to admire the massive radar array inside the facility.
"Holy crap, an unexpected bonus! I've been dying for a minimap!"
This was an absolute surprise. The minimap came with a built-in entity radar and the ability to set custom waypoints, allowing him to teleport anywhere in the world at will.
It was safe to say that after years of failing to learn teleportation magic, Zenith had finally mastered instant transmission thanks to Minecraft mods.
Cheating really was so much easier than hard work.
Now armed with a minimap, the entire layout of Section 13 appeared crystal clear before Zenith's eyes. He could even see the pixelated avatars of Jackie, Jade, and the others on the interface.
"Found it!" There was no need to walk; he just teleported directly. According to the minimap, the laboratory was completely empty anyway.
Zenith soon laid eyes on the blue machine. It looked like a giant pen nib jammed into a rectangular block—highly futuristic, yet somehow reeking of retro aesthetics.
Booting up the all-in-one computer, Zenith navigated the system to check the built-in documentation and experimental data.
He lost his composure the moment he read the title. "Solid-State Partial Photo-Directed High-Density Hypnotic State Converter Phase Two... what a garbage name. It sounds like something generated by an AI."
The name was terrible, but its effects were absurd. This machine could shatter the space-time continuum, forcing specific objects into a highly energized state.
In other words, the [Energy Excitation] Minecraft status effect Zenith had noticed earlier.
Zenith crafted another talisman to test it out. It wasn't just the talismans; he also tested his vanilla diamond sword and various modded accessories.
He finally reached a conclusion: this machine could boost a random attribute of an item by about 20%, but it would rapidly drain the item's durability in exchange.
It didn't matter for the talismans since they lacked a durability bar, but for items that actually had durability, this thing was terrifying.
The rate at which it burned through durability could actually outpace the Mending enchantment.
"Anything involving space-time is completely broken. I need to find a chance to drag a few Speedwagon Foundation researchers over here for further study."
It probably wouldn't be long before Zenith could mass-produce this machine back home. He had plenty of items without durability bars, making this thing a fantastic little progression artifact for him.
A week passed in a flash. Zenith brought Serie along to their appointment, attending the auction alongside Jackie Chan.
"This is my first time at a place like this. How should I put it... it's a bit surreal."
He had always read about novel protagonists attending one auction after another, but this was the first time in both his past and present lives that he was actually participating in one.
Zenith was thrilled. He was ready to throw his money around; absolutely no one in the room today was going to walk away with a single item.
"Our first item up for bid is an exquisite porcelain piece from the East. Experts have appraised it to be over seven hundred years old. The bidding will start at five hundred dollars."
The auctioneer struck his gavel to signal the start. Zenith raised an eyebrow. Offering such a good item right off the bat for only five hundred dollars? That was practically giving it away.
"One thousand dollars!"
He waited for a while, but surprisingly, no one raised the bid. Zenith leaned back in his chair, thoroughly bored. "I knew Americans wouldn't recognize the good stuff. I'll have someone pack it up, ship it back home, and donate it to a museum."
This wasn't exactly a high-end auction. Only the first three items and the grand finale were actually worth anything.
Take the vessel holding the Rat Talisman, for example—it was literally just a decorative porcelain desk lamp.
Something that could be plugged into a wall socket? There was no way that thing was an antique. It was definitely a modern fake!
"I bid ten thousand dollars." This price was purely out of respect for the Rat Talisman. The auctioneer was absolutely dumbfounded. It was the year 2000; ten thousand dollars was no small sum.
Finn's trio showed up to cause trouble again, their sights set on snatching the talisman. Accompanying them was a massive sumo wrestler—Tohru, the prime example of a villain turning over a new leaf later in the series.
Standing over two meters tall and weighing nearly 220 kilograms, combined with his formidable sumo and karate skills, he could probably beat a tiger to death barehanded.
"Jackie Chan, hand over the talisman!"
The trio's eyes practically had auto-lock enabled, instantly zeroing in on Jackie. But then, they noticed Zenith, who was currently prying the Rat Talisman out of the lamp.
"It's the boss of the Illuminati! Hand over the talisman, that's an order from Valmont!"
Zenith shot them a deadpan look. "Valmont my ass. Even Shendu's orders wouldn't mean squat to me."
Naturally, this Rat Talisman was also a high-quality fake. Zenith tossed the talisman lightly in his hand. "If you want it, come and get it."
Tohru was genuinely fearless. Riding high on his "new character plot armor," he had absolutely brutalized Jackie in close combat during his first few episodic appearances.
The sheer density of the dark aura currently swirling around him was proof enough of that.
These guys were supposedly just "ordinary martial artists," yet punching through concrete walls and hurling cars like the Hulk was basically an everyday occurrence for them.
Watching Tohru charge at him, Zenith simply extended a single finger and gave him a light poke. Instantly, Tohru was sent flying backward at a speed far exceeding his initial charge.
A massive, perfectly round hole was smashed through the wall. Zenith stepped through the opening, completely ignoring the groaning Tohru in the rubble, his attention entirely captivated by a red-and-blue flatnose semi-truck parked outside.
"Serie, I have a bold idea."
Before Zenith could even elaborate, Serie was already rubbing her temples. "Hold on a second. Let me start a voice recording so I can send this to the Speedwagon Foundation later."
Zenith circled the truck once, then shooed away its original owner with a thick stack of cash.
"You guys probably haven't heard of a silicon-based lifeform known as Transformers. Legend has it that the AllSpark can grant life to machinery, and the AllSpark is, to a large extent, very similar in nature to the Matrix of Leadership."
"So, if I slap an incredibly badass-looking shell around the Rat Talisman, wouldn't that let me create a Transformer capable of spawning its own kind?"
Jackie turned to look at Serie. Serie stared back at him with a dead-eyed, soul-crushed expression. "*Sigh*, don't look at me, I have no idea either. But I do know that once he finishes whatever he's planning, you guys are going to have your hands full."
Meanwhile, Zenith had already gotten to work. The Rat Talisman possessed the power of animation—turning the motionless into the living—and his high-quality fake was no different.
But how exactly did the talisman determine the identity of the inanimate object it was animating? Zenith theorized there were two factors: the general public's collective perception, and the rational, overwhelming willpower of the user.
Staring intently at the massive semi-truck in front of him, Zenith began chanting rapidly under his breath, 'This is Optimus Prime, this is Optimus Prime...'
He then unscrewed the gas cap and casually shoved the talisman inside.