"Na?"
The next day, when Huai Shi opened his eyes on the rescue team's hospital bed, he heard a voice close at hand and finally saw the black-hearted woman who had popped up from who knows where. She was eagerly looking down at him. And yes, she was stepping on his face.
Huai Shi sighed. "Before we go through the procedure, could you please get off first?"
"Wow, so indifferent?" Raven cocked her head to look at him. "Is it because the welfare I provide isn't enough, or have you beco used to the wildflowers outside and now find big sister unappealing?"
"Could you turn into a human before saying that kind of thing, please?"
Huai Shi couldn't help but sneeze and rubbed his nose, casually pulling her off his face. "What do you want to say? 'Ghost, you actually know how to co back?' Or should I just toss you into the pot and stew so crow soup?"
"Heaven have rcy, I was planning to just run off with you. Who knew you would be so stubborn and charge right into the fray?"
Raven transford into mist, suddenly breaking free from his grasp. She then re-ford on his hair, lowering her head to look at him. "This ti it was purely your hardheadedness; you can't bla big sister, can you? Besides, wasn't it exhilarating to pilot the cha? You went through an entire wish-fulfillnt plotline!"
Huai Shi rolled his eyes. "Is your definition of wish-fulfillnt different from everyone else's?"
"Alright, no more being mad. See what big sister brought you?"
Raven lifted a claw, grabbed a plastic bag, and shook it in front of him.
"Chicken bones?" Huai Shi glanced. "Did you bring leftovers for dinner? Next ti, could you bring a whole chicken carcass so at least I could use it to make soup?"
"Making soup with the Rotten Dream Queen's bones?" Raven was shocked. "Are you planning to embrace the Abyss? You can't be reckless even if you're hardheaded, right?"
"What the hell?"
Huai Shi stared, sowhat in disbelief. "Wow, have you finally developed a conscience?"
Raven shook her head, putting the bag in Huai Shi's hand. "Although you have quite a biased view of , and I'd love to say, 'See how good your big sister is to you?', this is actually from soone else—"
"Who?" Huai Shi thought for a mont, then realized. "The big shot in the grey suit?"
"That guy? Hmph, a corporate slave would be more like it." Raven continued, "He prepared it especially for you: Remnants of Sinister—essence condensed from the Owner of the Great Mob at the Ruler Level when they manifested in physical form, which can be said to be part of their very nature. If used in the production of Alchemy potions, it could probably create sothing quite extraordinary, and the leftover residue is the Sinister Ashes you need for your advancent."
Huai Shi took a sharp breath, his tongue clicking in awe.
Then he began to feel afraid.
On one hand, he was shocked by the nature of the Sinister Ashes; on the other, he was shocked by the microtransaction demands of the Heavenly Kingdom Genealogy...
Even the leftover scraps, the bone dregs left after making soup, they're still part of a Hell Ruler, right? In other genealogies, this could probably directly be used as material for the Fifth Stage Stigma, and here on the Heavenly Inquiry Route, it's just one of the Third Stage materials?
Isn't that a bit too exaggerated?
"Don't get it wrong. Can the pauper version be the sa as the deluxe VIP package?"
Raven, already well aware of Huai Shi's stingy nature, rolled her eyes. "You want to beco stronger but refuse to pay. Are you so freeloader from who knows where?"
Huai Shi couldn't be bothered to retort anymore.
Anyhow, he finally understood why the Heavenly Kingdom Genealogy was called the Abyss Genealogy… it's a microtransaction hell, alright!
Don't ask so much; you just pay up, and it's done.
Pay and you get stronger; don't pay and you have nothing… it's the tears of the trade.
Hadn't he just experienced it? An unequipped Osiris being toyed with by Golden Dawn, then once ard, he was instantly capable of taking on the Remaining Evils of the World head-on.
And Osiris, in his pri with 19 god-tier gear stepping into Hell, was like beating up children.
But from this point of view, it seed quite conscientious, as places where you get exactly what you pay for are truly rare. Yet for most people, paying isn't the issue; the issue is having no gold to spend...
Even Huai Shi, who had just pulled off a daring heist, felt a sense of despair thinking about his next set of materials for advancent.
Penniless and struggling.
When will this hard life of eating chaff end?
And moreover, the key question was...
"If I pay up for this thing, how much stronger will I beco?" Huai Shi, clutching the bag containing Remnants of Sinister, actually felt a bit of the joy one feels after a successful "ten in a row" pull.
It's over; he felt that he was beyond saving.
From the inside out, he had turned into the shape of a microtransaction-addicted pig.
"Don't worry, the upgraded version definitely cos with its benefits."
Raven explained, "Based on my calculations, your current limit is about a third of what's in this bag. Any more, and you'd be eroded and solidified by the Abyss essence—a loss rather than a gain.
Using Remnants of Sinister to advance, even in the pri days of Utopia, would be considered the most luxurious tier. Once you advance, the Mountain Ghost's life force and pestilence will take a step further. More importantly, the Yin Soul portion will undergo a transformation.
By that ti, the Nightmare Fog ford by the Apocalypse will be directly imbued with a Ruler's aura, exerting a Rank suppression on enemies, and it will also prompt an early Source Material Transformation in the Yin Soul's talent. You're making a huge profit."
Yin Soul's talent?
Huai Shi scratched his head, thought for a long ti, and finally checked the Book of Fate before he rembered "Dark Windbreaker," a skill he had long forgotten.
The only skill that ca with the Yin Soul Stigma, and also a passive effect, was Dark Lurking.
Staying in the dark corners made it hard to be detected; the darker, the more stealthy... It benefited sneaking and surprise attacks, but he seed to have been acting too recklessly lately and hadn't used this skill for a long ti.
"You'll understand once you advance."
Raven smiled mysteriously and said nothing more but seed quite interested in looking at the nightstand beside Huai Shi's bed—the inconspicuous Steel book.
"By the way, since you have a new friend, why don't you introduce us?"
"..."
Like an illusion, when Huai Shi turned his head, it seed as if the usually silent Steel book trembled for a mont under Raven's gaze.
No, even the water cup on the table started to tremble.
The way it was shaking, it was downright trembling in fear!
Huai Shi was shocked. He couldn't associate it with the young man who had been so tough as to stand up against Golden Dawn with a foul mouth just the day before.
"Why isn't it talking?" Raven asked curiously, tilting her head toward Huai Shi. "Is it a little mute?"
Then, Beelzebub shook even more violently.
But it finally made a sound.
"Saint..."
"Majesty..."
"Honour..."
It cycled through several titles but didn't dare to finish any of them, stuttering without completing a phrase.
"Oh, the kid is quite polite. Just call sister."
Raven chuckled softly and waved her wings. "Alright, get so rest. You're growing, so you need more sleep. Don't idle around chit-chatting all day for no reason, got it?"
Imdiately, the Steel book stopped moving.
It started playing dead.
Huai Shi then began to feel a headache coming on.
Could this little brother have so problem?
Could it be heatstroke?
After the fierce battle, Huai Shi had surprisingly co out unscathed, only suffering from a lack of Source Substance and needing a few days of rest.
However, the situation for Beelzebub was not optimistic.
As Osiris's onboard AI and central control, it had taken over eighty percent of the stress on Huai Shi's behalf and was now severely damaged.
It couldn't stay online all day and needed to undergo slow repair through lengthy sleep coupled with Huai Shi's Source Substance.
It only needed three hours of charging to be online for five minutes of trash-talking.
Fortunately, the weapon's status could be deployed at any ti. The use of the ultra-compact judgnt weaponry, the Ammit Revolver, was unaffected.
Although, to use the "Source Obliteration Bullet" at maximum Firepower, Beelzebub still had to co online for Firepower convergence and control.
After wasting two on Morando yesterday, there were four left in the chamber—all of which were extracted from Osiris's Source furnace by Beelzebub during the last evacuation.
Even though they were small, they were still part of Osiris's weaponry, with imnse destructive power.
The only drawback was energy consumption; it was damn expensive. Osiris could use these bullets like a machine gun, but for Huai Shi, one bullet could drain him to ashes, making it too difficult to replenish.
Beelzebub had done the calculations. If Huai Shi could pour most of his Source Substance into "Lord of the Flies" every night before sleeping without affecting his own condition, excluding the waste and consumption during the repair and extraction process, it would take roughly two months to make one.
The limit was six bullets since that was all the chamber could hold.
Fortunately, apart from the super-high power output, Alchemy Bullets could be used at other tis, so it wouldn't cause Huai Shi's assets to go down with the enemy. But it was still too expensive.
The bullets, with their special caliber and structure, were entirely handcrafted by Alchemists, and their alloy complexity exceeded the control range of the Hand of Confinent. Even if Huai Shi could buy the finished alloy materials to reprocess, the cost was still around two thousand Dongxia Yuan per bullet.
One trigger pull, and two grand were gone!
With every shot, both the enemy's heart and Huai Shi's heart bled together.
"Enough, enough, stop counting."
Raven couldn't bear to watch Huai Shi calculating on his phone anymore, lifting her wing and giving him a smack on the back of the head. "If you're alright, then get up quickly and go through the discharge procedures, Fool. We're leaving."
"Where to?"
Huai Shi asked subconsciously and then realized...
Wait, where am I now?
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