Chapter 373: Chapter 372: Really Don’t Swallow Light Bulbs

Richard acted decisively, and in no time, he had moved all the useful things from the palace outside, such as chests filled with various treasures and some fine decorations.

After moving them out, Richard took out the Golden Mask, its surface covered in bite marks.

The Golden Mask was very confused and called out, “Hey, kid, hey hey, I’m talking to you! Tell me, what exactly are you trying to do?”

Richard ignored it and casually tossed the Golden Mask onto a box outside, then turned and went back into the palace.

Before long, a “rumbling” blast echoed from inside the palace, the building began to sway, and then it collapsed all at once with a “crash,” kicking up dust like the waves in a great sea, rising dozens of meters high.

The palace had fallen, the palace was gone.

The Golden Mask atop the box outside was first stunned, then it began to scream like a castrated pig, like a gored castrated bull.

He was the Hall Spirit, the Guardian of the palace!

Now Richard had destroyed the palace, he had no palace left!

This was like taking away the most important thing from him right in front of his face.

“Ah! You little punk, you jerk! What have you done! Why did you demolish my palace?! You come here, I’m not finished with you, I’m going to make you pay! I’m going to show you, I’m not someone to be trifled with, you dare to destroy the palace, I’ll make you regret it…”

“Hey, come over here if you dare…”

“Cough cough, you’ve wrecked my palace, left me homeless, can’t you even come over and talk to me, you… do you have no compassion at all…”

“Hey…”

Richard completely ignored the Golden Mask and was seriously planning how to remodel.

…

Many days later.

Following his plan and with the aid of Magic Power, the permanent laboratory complex Richard had remodeled gradually took shape: a cylindrical main laboratory was at the core, surrounded by numerous functional sectors, within which more buildings were being constructed. The two sectors with the most buildings were the biological experimentation sector and the Spell testing sector. The other sectors were being continuously perfected based on demand.

Of course, all of this was evaluated by the Golden Mask as: ugly, grotesque, lacking taste, trash!

In the eyes of the Golden Mask, Richard had knocked down the incomparably magnificent palace to use the materials to build houses fit only for the poor, which was simply a waste, an utterly reprehensible and unforgivable crime, one that should be met with the most severe punishment.

Richard continued to ignore it, calmly and steadily pushing forward with the renovation plan.

Richard had decided that some of the more important, dangerous, and confidential experiments and tests would all be conducted here from now on, and the outside laboratories would only carry out simpler experiments and tests with lower technical content.

Thinking this, Richard walked into the new main laboratory.

The new main laboratory was much larger than the old one, it being cylindrical, with a diameter of nearly twenty meters and an area of over two hundred square meters.

At the center of the laboratory stood a huge ring-shaped experimental table, and all around were numerous wooden racks filled with various potions and experimental instruments. Each potion and experiment instrument was labeled and numbered. With this arrangement, it would be hard for Pandora to pick up the wrong medicine.

Richard’s eyes glowed with a cerise light as he looked at everything in the laboratory. After a long gaze, he nodded, very satisfied. But looking outside the laboratory, he thought of something and couldn’t help but purse his lips.

In the outside world, because there’s the Sun, at least half of the day is bright. The Inner Box World, on the other hand, is always shrouded in darkness. To carry out experiments and conduct research normally, it’s necessary to do the lighting well–unless “Dark Vision” Spell is used at all times to see.

Compared to the work of lighting, it’s not difficult. One could simply use oil lamps, candles, and torches to fulfill the need. But now, with the establishment of the new laboratory complex, lighting could also be appropriately upgraded, such as using… electric lights.

Electric lights aren’t highly technical, and incandescent bulbs could easily be produced now. Before, in the outside world, Richard didn’t implement them not because there wasn’t a need or there were alternatives, but mainly because electric lights couldn’t be hidden; discovery by others could not be easily explained.

Now, within the Inner Box World, there was no such worry.

His eyes flashing, Richard made up his mind.

The next moment, Richard stepped out of the new main laboratory and left the Inner Box World.

…

Several days later.

Someone knocked at the courtyard door. Richard heard Alex outside, panting and shouting with all his might, “My dearest friend… huff… Lord Richard, here I am… huff… Open the door, quickly!”

“Squeak–twist–”

Richard extended his hand to open the door and saw Alex standing outside, back hunched with a box strapped on and another in his arms, sweating profusely from exertion.

Richard was somewhat puzzled as he scanned the street, seeing no carriage in sight, and with a raised eyebrow, he asked Alex, “Did you bring the goods by yourself? Aren’t you afraid of getting tired?”

This was indeed a rarity, given Alex’s character, who would claim fatigue after walking more than a kilometer or complain something was too heavy if it exceeded ten pounds. Alex might have been greedy for money, but he usually had goods delivered by cart, certainly not like today.

“I’m not tired at all, it’s just two boxes; I can carry them easily,” replied Alex, his voice steady but his body wobbling as he made his way through the door. Having just placed the boxes in the courtyard, his legs buckled, and he collapsed to the ground with a “thud.”

Watching Alex’s stubborn facade, Richard genuinely suspected the man would start foaming at the mouth and expire the next moment.

Out of pity, Richard handed a cup of water to Alex.

Upon seeing the water, Alex’s eyes grew wide, and he snatched the cup, gulping it down furiously. He licked his lips and, after resting for a while, he finally recovered.

Trembling slightly, he stood up, opened the box, and said to Richard, “Lord Richard, take a look. The batch of glass containers you requested, I’ve brought them all. They are all up to your specifications, this… um, peculiar shape, it’s correct, isn’t it?”

Richard glanced at them and saw that they were pear-shaped, in accordance with his requirements.

The reason he had specifically asked for the bulbs to be made in this shape was not to trouble Alex or the glassmakers unnecessarily, but to ensure that the bulbs worked better.

Once lit, the filament inside a bulb would often reach temperatures exceeding 2000 degrees Celsius, causing some metal particles to evaporate from the filament’s surface. The pear shape of the bulb allowed the inert gas inside to circulate by convection, carrying the evaporated metal particles upward to accumulate around the neck of the bulb, thus reducing the impact on the surrounding and bottom of the bulb and maintaining its brightness.

“Yes, that’s correct,” said Richard to Alex.

Hearing Richard’s response, Alex breathed a sigh of relief, repeatedly saying, “Good, good.”

“By the way, Lord Richard, please count them.”

“Alright,” Richard said, promptly counting them without any politeness.

After counting, Alex asked, “So, how is it, Lord Richard? Nothing missing, right?”

“Nothing is missing,” Richard shook his head, taking a bulb out of the box, “Not only is nothing missing, but there’s actually one extra.”

“One extra?” Alex’s eyes twinkled, and he snatched the extra bulb from Richard’s hand, “Extra, is it? Seems like the glass factory made a mistake with the count. I’ll return it to them right away.”

Return it?

Richard’s brows lifted as he thought to himself: Return it my foot, he’s surely going to keep it.

However, Alex’s behavior was a bit odd.

Although Alex was a crooked merchant who loved a good bargain, he normally would not bother with trivial gains. And now, haggling over a single bulb…

Richard shook his head, not wanting to delve deeper, and watched as Alex held the bulb in his hand. Out of good intentions, he cautioned, “Well, if you’re going to return it, be careful on the way.”

“Huh?” Alex blinked, confused.

“I hope that out of curiosity, you don’t put this glass container in your mouth, because while it’s easy to get in there, it’s very difficult to get out,” Richard earnestly admonished Alex, not wanting the tragedies that happened on Earth to be repeated in such a silly manner here.

“Oh, is that so…” Alex seemed to half grasp what was said, nodded vaguely in response, took the balance of the payment from Richard, and left the courtyard.

…

“Tap tap tap…”

Alex was walking down the street.

As he walked, he took the bulb out of his arms, looked at it closely, subconsciously opened his mouth to gauge, and with a hint of skepticism, he mused aloud, “Put it in and can’t get it out? Really?”

After speaking, Alex carefully started pushing the bulb towards his mouth, bit by bit…

Soon, the entire bulb was in his mouth.

“It’s easy peasy, nothing difficult about it,” thought Alex, convinced that getting it out would be just as simple, “It seems Lord Richard fooled me.” He reached out to remove the bulb.

Then…

Hmm!

Alex’s eyes widened moment by moment, standing helplessly in the middle of the street, a whimpering sound of panic emanating from his mouth.

…