They Called Me Trash? Now I'll Hack Their World-Chapter 188: We’re Going to Be Rich!

The night sky stretched outside the window, stars scattered across black canvas, the moon a bright crescent providing just enough light to see by even without lamps.

I stood in my room, looking at the materials spread across the table.

Dried and fresh herbs, carefully organized by type.

Mineral compounds extracted from the mine. Glass bottles waiting to be filled. The mortar and pestle I’d purchased from an apothecary, along with measuring tools, stirring rods, and a small heating apparatus that ran on mana crystals.

That’s everything I need.

Behind me, Scarlet sat on the bed, one hand patting Tessa’s back while Tessa clutched a handful of coins and made pitiful sniffing sounds.

"My money..." Tessa’s voice was mournful. "All my beautiful money... gone..."

"Stop whining," I said without turning around. "It’s an investment for our greater project."

"What if it fails?" She sniffed again, dramatically. "What if you waste all these expensive materials and we’re broke and we starve?"

"Then we take more missions and earn it back. Now shut up and let me work."

I heard her make another wounded sound, but she went quiet.

Good.

I pulled the improved corruption treatment formula from my pocket, reviewed it one more time to make sure I had every step memorized, then began.

Started with the base, dried silverleaf stems.

Placed them in the mortar and began grinding with the pestle, using steady circular motions, feeling the plant matter break down into finer and finer powder.

The silverleaf became a pale green powder. I transferred it to a clean bowl.

Next, the binding catalyst. A mineral compound from the mine that my debug vision had identified as having unusual mana-reactive properties.

Ground it separately until it was dust-fine, then carefully measured out the exact amount needed.

Too much and it becomes toxic. Too little and the compound won’t stabilize.

Mixed the silverleaf powder with the catalyst, stirring slowly, watching through debug vision as the molecular structures began interacting.

Then I added the liquid base, purified water infused with trace mana, created by running regular water through a low-grade mana crystal for several hours.

The powder dissolved, turning the water a cloudy pale blue.

Then I activated the heating apparatus, bringing the mixture to a gentle simmer while stirring constantly.

Temperature control is critical.

I monitored it through debug vision, making micro-adjustments to the heat, the stirring speed, occasionally adding tiny amounts of additional ingredients to correct the molecular balance.

Tessa had stopped sniffling and was watching from the bed now, her earlier dramatics forgotten in favor of genuine interest.

"It’s pretty."

"It’s functional. Pretty is secondary."

Twenty minutes of careful heating and stirring.

The mixture gradually transformed, cloudy blue becoming clear, then taking on that familiar bright blue coloration but deeper, more vibrant than the original version.

The glow intensified for a moment, then faded completely.

I removed it from heat, let it cool for a few minutes, then carefully transferred it into a clean glass bottle.

Held it up to the lamplight.

And grinned.

Then turned to Scarlet. "Your turn. This should work significantly better than the last dose."

She took the bottle without argument, uncorked it, and drank the contents in three quick swallows.

We watched.

I kept my debug vision active, monitoring the corruption’s response in real-time.

The dark veins that had been visible on Scarlet’s arms literally faded as we watched, the corruption being broken down and flushed from her system.

In less than five minutes, roughly a third of the total corruption had been eliminated.

I exhaled in relief.

"How do you feel?"

Scarlet flexed her hands, examining her arms where the veins had cleared.

"Lighter. Like something heavy was lifted off." She looked at me. "Much better than before. That stuff is potent."

"Two more doses and you should be completely clear." I made mental calculations. "One tomorrow evening, one the day after. Then you’re free."

I turned to Tessa, who was still watching with fascination.

"Come here. Your turn now."

She blinked. "My turn for what? I’m not corrupted."

I pinched the bridge of my nose.

"Not for treatment. For learning."

I gestured to the table, to the materials, to the equipment. "If we’re going to be producing and selling these compounds, I can’t be the only one who knows how to make them. You already proved you can learn alchemical processes. Time to expand your education."

Her eyes lit up immediately, all traces of her earlier money-mourning completely forgotten.

She practically bounced off the bed, moving to stand beside me at the table with barely contained excitement.

I pulled out the next formula.

"We’re starting with this one. It’s simpler than the corruption treatment..."

The night stretched on.

I walked Tessa through step by step, correcting her when she started to add too much of an ingredient, guiding her hands when her stirring technique wasn’t quite right, explaining.

She was a remarkably fast learner.

Her first attempt came out at 89% quality.

But by the third attempt, she was producing compounds that matched my own quality levels.

Scarlet had fallen asleep on the bed around midnight, exhausted from the treatment and recovery, curled up on top of the blankets.

Tessa and I kept working.

Created batch after batch.

Filled bottle after bottle with various colored liquids, organizing them by type, labeling them carefully.

By the time the sky outside began lightening with pre-dawn grey, we had a substantial inventory.

I looked at our work, at the organized rows of bottles, and felt something like pride.

Tessa was leaning against the table, exhausted but grinning.

"We made so many," she said, her voice carrying wonder. "Look at them all. They’re beautiful."

"They’re functional," I corrected. But I was smiling too. "But yes. We made a lot."

"We’re going to be rich," she said dreamily.

I looked out the window at the approaching dawn.

"Go to bed," I told Tessa. "You’ve been up all night. Get some rest."

I stored the potions carefully in my dimensional ring, organized the remaining materials, cleaned up the workspace.

Then dropped on the bed.