Interstellar Travel: Becoming a Dress-Up Game Designer

Chapter 244

Learning is simple. This instance is directly located in the Huaxia Jianghu (江湖, a world of martial arts and chivalry). There are many brothels here; feel free to enter. The masters inside are all recruiting. Prioritize increasing your favorability with the masters in the brothels; won't that significantly increase your chances of obtaining items?

It's much better than going out to farm other people's items, only to find out later that they don't have the item. Players are quite clear-headed; they anticipated the difficulties and traps Qingfengyin might have set. As a result, the porcelain masters in the Huaxia Jianghu were surrounded by players, with a dozen or even twenty players clamoring to become their apprentices. The masters had an apprenticeship system, and Lin Shuying, with his mischievous humor, set up four apprenticeship options:

The first type is the ordinary apprentice. Anyone who wants to learn a skill can come; this is the first step for any apprentice. Most of these ordinary apprentices are hired as assistants, providing free labor—this was common practice in ancient times. The master would give them a few copper coins after making money. If they were clever, they would learn the skill and start their own business; if they weren't, they really had no future. In Lin Shuying's case, anyone who asks can learn, the master is very easy to talk to, and the first task after becoming an apprentice is to break mud.

The second type of apprenticeship involves selecting talented and virtuous individuals from among the ordinary apprentices to become advanced apprentices. These advanced apprentices will be exposed to more refined techniques from their master and will assist the final disciples, helping to manage the master's legacy. Masters conduct rigorous assessments of these apprentices, especially regarding character. The skills learned are also superior. Lin Shuying's system requires apprentices to produce a certain number of porcelain pieces with a success rate meeting the master's requirements. Upon entering the apprenticeship, the master will inform them of the required quantity and success rate. Two to five porcelain pieces will be made daily, depending on the player's speed. The system doesn't allow skipping steps like breaking clay, shaping, drawing, and molding; players must complete these manually. At most, a few touches increase the success rate, unlike actual porcelain making which requires a day or even several days. Steps like air-drying and firing can be skipped; choosing to skip requires answering a question, and answering correctly significantly increases the success rate. Without skipping, players must control the firing temperature themselves, ensuring they truly learn how to fire porcelain. A diligent person can complete all the tasks in a day, gain the master's approval, and then learn more advanced porcelain firing techniques. A less diligent person might only be able to fire two pieces a day, making it somewhat difficult to complete the tasks.

To prevent players from feeling overwhelmed by the grind, there are many tips and tricks to reduce time and skip steps, which players will have to discover for themselves. Discovering game tricks is part of the fun, especially in some games where players creating their own ingenious methods is the core gameplay. This event also features this feature; how players use it will depend on their strategy.

The third method is to select exceptionally talented and morally upright individuals from among the senior apprentices to become personal disciples. In China, there is a saying, "A teacher for a day is a father for life," and personal disciples are those who will inherit the mantle. Most masters' personal disciples are their own sons, but children are like blind boxes; if you open the right one, everyone is happy, but if you open the wrong one, giving him an unsuitable inheritance will only ruin your own fortune.

In Lin Shuying's generation, many people pinned their life's hopes on their children, leaving the children exhausted and causing unhappiness for the whole family. Here, she abandoned the idea of ​​her son inheriting her father's business; she would inherit it if she liked, and pursue her own dreams if she didn't.

How good.

Even if parents want their children to suffer less, dreamers are not afraid of hardship. If they are afraid, they should shrink back and wait for their parents to make arrangements.

The fourth type is the "miracle apprenticeship." Some people are truly gifted, incredibly talented, able to learn many things at a glance and master them extremely quickly. Despite not having studied for much time, their creations are imbued with spirit, and even casual crafts become masterpieces. Lin Shuying wouldn't let these players go; they are all promising talents in the inheritance of Chinese techniques, and she must offer them ample benefits to keep them firmly under her control.

Although Qingfengyi is a game, it has now developed into a core way of inheriting Chinese culture. Lin Shuying, the inheritor, has naturally taken this into consideration. A hundred years from now, these people will be the backbone of the inheritance of Chinese culture!

The requirements for accepting apprentices in Miracle are quite high; the apprentice must create a piece that the master approves. Once the master is impressed, they will personally send an acceptance letter. If the player also approves, the Miracle apprenticeship is complete. The Miracle apprentice will receive various porcelain blueprints from the master; crafting according to these blueprints will result in a unique, limited-edition item. However, the crafting process cannot be skipped; skipping it will result in a regular item.

As a player following the program, 'Gray Hole' completes the apprenticeship ceremony as required, and then makes porcelain according to the tasks given by the master.

First, I smashed the clay the craftsman had prepared, and I was incredulous during the process. The items in the online store were actually made from this kind of grayish mud?

It seems to involve glassmaking, although glass isn't very popular in interstellar space—it's too fragile. Interstellar space has entirely new alternatives to glass, with better quality and toughness, and it can even incorporate various techniques to create a high-tech, seamless surface. Many houses now have windows made this way, allowing the background to be changed as needed; when no background is needed, it's just a glass window when closed.

Making glass requires pure materials, with as few impurities as possible. The 'gray hole' was then hammered and polished for a while longer, and it was discovered that the more the clay was hammered, the finer it became?

After hammering and pounding until the texture remained consistent, he began shaping the clay, then air-drying it, scraping it, and glazing it. He pondered the reasons behind each step, and inexplicably learned a great deal. When the finished product emerged, he was stunned!

This was a completely plain blue porcelain vase, its surface covered with a thin, lustrous glaze that made the porcelain surface exquisitely delicate. Just then, an old man dressed in a short gray Hanfu (traditional Han Chinese clothing) came over while wiping himself with a towel and said, "Your work is quite good. Would you be willing to become my apprentice?"

Then a letter was handed over. 'The gray hole was a little stunned. What is this?'

The system promptly notified the player: Congratulations, dear player, for triggering the Miracle Apprenticeship event.

The Miracle Apprenticeship event wasn't mentioned in the announcement, so to prevent players from getting confused, the apprenticeship explanation is provided here.

'Gray Hole' was a little too happy and didn't react for a moment. Seeing that he didn't take the letter, the old master thought he was unwilling and was about to take it back. 'Gray Hole' saw the hand about to leave and quickly grabbed it, hiding the letter in his pocket.

"Master, please accept my bow!"

He bowed at a ninety-degree angle, mimicking the etiquette of the Chinese martial arts world by clasping his hands in a traditional salute.

The old man smiled with satisfaction and said, "No need for formalities, please come with me."

The gray opening followed closely behind the master craftsman, and the camera was turned on; this part had to be recorded, as it hadn't been recorded earlier. Halfway there, it dawned on them that they hadn't taken the porcelain they'd just fired!

I quickly explained the situation to the worker, who said, "Come back and pick it up later; no one will touch it."

He had no choice but to give up on the 'gray hole' and go with his master to see what he had to say. As for the porcelain, he had the entire process in mind and would fire another one next time.

It's a bit of a shame, though, that was the first piece of porcelain he ever made.

The master craftsman led his newly accepted apprentice to his private workshop, the furnishings of which were highly distinctive. Two burlap sacks sat on the table, next to many sieves and hammers, as well as various strange tools, most of which the apprentice didn't recognize. Seeing his curiosity, the master craftsman asked, "Would you like to come and assist me?"

'Gray Hole' pondered for a moment, wondering if this was a task or a logical response from an intelligent program. It took a while to think, but the old man didn't rush it. He simply opened an antique cabinet, took out a wooden box, and carefully placed it on the table. Meanwhile, 'Gray Hole' had also made up its mind: "I'm willing to assist my master."

The master craftsman smiled and said, "Alright, you'll work as an assistant for an hour from now on. As payment to support your livelihood, I'll give you 200 pearls every day."

"Give me, give me pearls? And you still want 200!"

Ten pearls equal one interstellar coin!

In addition, Qingfengyi did not mean that pearls would not be issued as game currency, but only that the circulation of game currency would be adjusted to provide players with a way to exchange for Star Coins, right?

200 pearls equals 20 Star Coins per day, which is basically enough to cover a moderate daily nutrient requirement under the high welfare conditions of StarCraft. One hour is two hours, costing 10 Star Coins per hour. The remaining time can be used for other tasks, and even if you lose a lot of Star Coins by exchanging them from the official channel, it's enough to live on. It's like working here?

He was truly shocked!

Qingfengyi is the first game he knows that actually pays players, which is a bit outrageous!

The old man smiled and said, "Since you're here to assist me, I'll naturally pay you. Come here for an hour, and you can use the rest of the time as you like. But don't be lazy; you must carefully hone your skills. Porcelain making isn't something that can be done well with simple skills; it requires patience and perseverance. Alright, this is your apprenticeship gift. Just come back tomorrow at 1-3 PM or 3-5 PM."

Suppressing his shock, 'Gray Hole' accepted the apprenticeship gift from the master craftsman: a dusty gray box, not particularly well-designed. He was curious about its contents, guessing it contained tools for porcelain making.

Aside from giving him some tools, the master couldn't think of anything else he could give him.

"Thank you, Master. I will study hard."

"Yes, from now on you will be the inheritor of Chinese porcelain. Every piece you make must have the name of China engraved on it. I will explain this to you in detail later. It is the rule of porcelain artisans to engrave the craftsman's name and the country's name inside the porcelain."

Lin Shuying didn't know if this rule was mandatory, but it had to be done here. Perhaps players didn't initially have this awareness when making porcelain offline, but after being influenced by the game, most of them would eventually develop these habits. In this way, porcelain making could be passed down stably and for a long time, which was her goal.

'Gray Hole' nodded in agreement. After being released by its master, it couldn't wait to run to find the first piece of porcelain it had ever made. It was quite excited.