Mission in another world with my transformed best friend

A question mark also appeared above Zhang Lan's head.

"If you were asked to repeat such a long string of words without punctuation, it would be quite a challenge. Forget it, I'll start from the very beginning..."

As he spoke, Zhang Lan continued to lead the way, and after a few steps, he found a starting point for an explanation in his mind and said.

"Do you remember that first night in that otherworldly place you spent in the basement of Tara Village?"

"Of course I know, you're still peeing standing up... Never mind, please continue."

As Zhang Lan walked, she drew circles in the air with her small hands and slowly explained.

"I have read a lot of books about the world's humanities, geography, history, culture, etc., and I have a general understanding of the world's level of technological production, which is equivalent to the 'Western European Middle Ages' era."

"Furthermore, in the long development path of 'technology' and 'magic,' 'technology' lags far behind 'magic.'"

"My personal understanding of this is that, given the current state of 'technology,' many things that 'technology' cannot do can be replaced by 'magic,' which is probably one of the main reasons why the development of 'technology' is so slow."

……

Wang Kai immediately interjected: "So, knowing this, you plan to take the 'technology' route instead of 'leveling up' like me, right?"

"Of course, in this era where we still rely on horse-drawn carriages for transportation, how much 'modern knowledge' can the two of us, with our diplomas from some third-rate university in the past, bring to advance the level of 'technology' in this world?"

"Electrical energy, mechanical energy, electronic energy, nuclear energy, and so on are all technologies that have been developed over hundreds of years thanks to the efforts of countless scientists."

"If the two of us were to do the research and development, it would be like two elementary school students listening to Einstein lecture on relativity. After listening, we would have to offer our opinions, find the flaws in his arguments, and refute them..."

"To be honest, I think it would be much simpler to have the 'Four Heroes' defeat the Demon King's army again..."

Wang Kai digested these words and nodded in agreement.

"Hmm, I can follow the explanation from simple to complex. So how did you get started?"

"It's simple, just cut down trees and mine..."

"You're joking again..."

Zhang Lan simply smiled faintly without responding. They had arrived at their destination, and she casually pushed open a luxurious door in the corridor. Wang Kai looked inside and saw the first-floor exhibition hall he had "met briefly" before…

The exhibition hall is furnished like a museum, with rows of artifacts full of world culture and history, giving it a high-end and sophisticated feel. The artifacts are surrounded by notices and instructions written in various otherworldly languages.

Before Wang Kai could take a closer look, Zhang Lan had already walked to a square area in the middle of the exhibition hall. Around the area stood six stone pillars, each with a crystal glass cover on top and a conspicuous item under it.

Zhang Lan pointed to the outermost stone pillar display stand and said.

"This is what I invented first... It's not appropriate to use the word 'invented' in front of you; it should be called 'imitated'."

Wang Kai stepped forward and looked through the crystal cover. It was just a dark, blocky object. Judging from the object's outline and some patterns on its surface, he quickly understood what it was.

"charcoal?"

Zhang Lan nodded.

"Correct!"

“Do you remember when we escorted Uncle Dooli and the others all the way to Merck Town, and we had a discussion about ‘heroes’ with them one night? I used a burnt tree branch as an analogy.”

"Afterwards, I saw the black charcoal powder sticking to my palms. Combined with my careful observation of their iron weapons and equipment, and after conducting puncture tests on your short sword and breastplate, I immediately and boldly deduced that there is no charcoal among the forging materials used in iron smelting in this world!"

"You could even see that? Amazing!" Wang Kai couldn't help but give a thumbs up.

"This is not even a god. Even the iron equipment of the Imperial soldiers like Duli is very rough. The metal surface is not only pitted, but also mixed with a little sand and air holes. It is obviously crude metal and is a pig iron product that has not been smelted at high temperature."

"The real reason for this phenomenon is the lack of modern smelting technology. What we lack most right now is high-temperature fuel. After all, the burning temperature of firewood is much lower than that of charcoal. The ore smelting simply cannot reach the melting point. We can only pound the ore while it is still 'red-hot'."

"Iron products with too many impurities are bound to be brittle, and the weapons and equipment made from them will certainly not withstand long-term use; breakage and deformation are only a matter of time..."

……

Wang Kai stroked his chin and nodded.

"Indeed, when I was 'farming points' before, I felt that compared to swords and knives, blunt weapons like iron bars were really better, otherwise they would break after fighting a few bosses. At first, I thought it was because of the level suppression that the weapon's durability was worn down too much, but I didn't expect it was because the 'durability' was not high enough..."

Zhang Lan didn't pay attention to Wang Kai's rambling, "gamer-like" chatter. She gestured to go to the next stone pillar display stand and walked along it.

"The principle of charcoal making is very simple: create a sealed environment, such as an earthen kiln, stack dry wood, and heat it from the outside until it carbonizes... Although the principle is simple, controlling the time and temperature is indeed a physically and mentally demanding task. If it weren't for my sister Martha's silent support behind the scenes, I don't know how I would have survived those long nights of working overtime..."

Zhang Lan walked to the next cylindrical display stand and looked at a gleaming silver metal piece under the crystal cover, and couldn't help but recall the scene when she first obtained it.

"The earthen kiln charcoal-making method... I remember now, I've seen it in some 'survival' short videos before. Those simple demonstrations in those ten-second videos are really not easy to recreate and successfully obtain in this world. When I first saw several earthen kilns inexplicably appearing around the rented house, I realized you were researching how to make charcoal. I thought you were building kilns to fire some porcelain or something..."

As Wang Kai spoke, he followed the footsteps to the spot. Upon seeing the silver metal object, he felt a sense of familiarity and paused for a few seconds before speaking.

"This is iron!? No, this should be 'steel'..."

Zhang Lan snapped out of her daze, nodded, and continued.

"It took me nearly ten days to get the first batch of charcoal. In order not to attract the attention of others for the time being, I secretly took some samples to the blacksmith's shop in Merck and asked the blacksmith to test the smelting effect for free."

"As expected, after replacing wood with charcoal, the smelting temperature increased significantly, and the ore could almost reach its melting point, but the final product was only slightly better than 'pig iron'..."

"However, during a later experiment, some pieces of charcoal were accidentally mixed with ore and smelted together. As a result, the impurities in the 'pig iron' decreased, and its hardness increased. After continuously adjusting the smelting and forging methods, the first piece of so-called 'steel' was finally forged, which is the one displayed on this stand in front of us today..."

……

This was beyond Wang Kai's knowledge, since as an "electrical engineering" major, he knew nothing about "metallurgy." But as a "modern person," he had to put on a show, so he listened and nodded repeatedly like a student, but couldn't come up with any opinions...

By the way, speaking of "steel", isn't there one around my waist?

Wang Kai took the iron rod down and held it in his hand, then winked at Zhang Lan a few times.

"Now I realize, I initially thought it was some kind of 'alloy steel' or something, but it's actually similar to 'steel bars.' It wasn't anything special in my original world, but because of the technological gap in 'smelting,' its hardness is among the highest in this world. But Zhang Lan, once your 'How the Steel Was Tempered' technology becomes widespread, this weapon of mine, which was originally considered 'legendary,' might become just 'white equipment'..."