Ming Po paused in front of the wine cabinet, which glead under the amber lights.
He pulled the switchblade from his pocket—the very sa one the Gao father and son had gifted him twice.
Click.
With a light push of Ming Po's fingertip, the bloodstained blade sprang out silently, ending with a crisp, pleasing snap.
He narrowed his eyes, admiring the blade with delight. Brushing his right thumb over the indelible bloodstains, he smiled wordlessly.
"Truly beautiful."
Ming Po murmured in awe, "I absolutely must... take a look at its stats."
Resisting the overwhelming urge to keep his current Title equipped, he took out the port wine representing Detective from the wine cabinet and poured himself a small glass. He had no addiction to smoking or drinking, but if he did... the craving would probably feel exactly like this.
Ming Po downed it in one gulp, closing his eyes to feel the icy liquid slide down his throat and into his stomach.
As the intense flavors of cherry and strawberry exploded in his mouth, the entire world rapidly plunged into silence.
Ming Po slowly opened his eyes, the depths of his pupils shimring with a cold, rational azure radiance.
He stared at the bloodstained dagger in his hand as several lines of text gradually materialized above it:
[Blade of Silver Mistletoe]
[Type: Treasure, Weapon]
[Effect: When struck by this blade, inflicts Immortality Severance and Healing Prohibition.]
[Restriction: While this weapon is drawn, the wielder gains Misfortune LV1.]
[Description: A bloodstained blade with marks that can never be wiped clean.]
...Misfortune?
The lowest level of misfortune was probably just enough to offset the lowest level of Luck, Ming Po pondered.
When he previously activated Madman, he felt his strength increase by roughly forty to fifty percent.
If calculated using the minimum value... that ant an all-around attribute boost of about forty percent.
In other words, his Luck had also increased by forty percent.
And after his Luck rose by forty percent, it had essentially canceled out Gao Song's Luck.
Ming Po was not entirely sure whether the Mistletoe Title belonged to the Zhou's Azure Lead or Day's False Gold tier... but he suspected it was Day's False Gold. anwhile, Gao Fan's Title was obtained back when he was at the Hour's Red Copper tier.
Although Gao Fan's Luck had been constantly suppressed during his clash with Gao Song, it still managed to take effect briefly from ti to ti... This proved the nurical gap between them was not too massive. This LV1 Misfortune was likely comparable to Gao Fan's Luck Title. By that logic, it should reduce the Luck attribute by around twenty percent. As for Immortality Severance and Healing Prohibition...
As Ming Po shifted his gaze, the corresponding explanations for these exclusive terms imdiately surfaced.
[Immortality Severance: When active, Immortality authority level -3]
[Healing Prohibition: When active, reduces all received healing effects by 80%]
"Oh?"
Ming Po's interest was instantly piqued.
The effects of these two modifiers were nothing special on their own... Anti-healing was a very common chanic. The mont Ming Po acquired superhuman regenerative abilities, he knew there would inevitably be counterasures against healing.
However, the description for Immortality Severance contained information that caught Ming Po's keen attention.
"Immortality."
This ant there truly were Titles or Secret Treasures capable of making Deceivers nearly impossible to kill.
Ming Po had previously deduced from the Werewolf Title's effects that Deceivers probably had a hard ti acquiring defensive attributes; Gao Fan had also confird that the Ga of Deception did not allow players to increase their health bars.
Yet, the stats of this blade now told Ming Po otherwise—there was indeed a way for Deceivers to attain true Immortality. If Immortality ant being "unkillable," it was functionally equivalent to increasing one's health bar. It was just that Gao Fan's tier was too low to have encountered it.
And as for what "authority level -3" ant... It clearly indicated that the activation or intensity of this Immortality was directly tied to a player's authority level. Most likely, it ant "Deceivers below a certain authority level cannot harm ," an ability that even the Red Queen at the Silver of Moon tier did not possess.
Silver of Moon was already considered the fourth tier of authority level.
This was probably a power only available to Deceivers at the Golden Rank or higher.
"Blade of Silver Mistletoe... Mistilteinn?"
Ming Po whispered softly, "What an incredible na."
He nudged the chanism, and the blade snapped back into its hilt.
He looked toward the wine cabinet.
Now, Frankenstein was finally repaired.
But...
For the ti being, Ming Po was sowhat reluctant to use it.
Because he had already obtained a Zhou's Azure Lead chip... his next step was promotion.
Even though it had only been two or three days since his last Promotion ga.
Yet, until he truly understood the aning behind that countdown, Ming Po dared not relax.
Perhaps when the countdown ended, he would face so kind of life-or-death crisis; or perhaps the end of the countdown signified the end of his beginner phase... Furthermore, Twenty Faces might also know that the Bacchus Shrine was in his possession.
Although that was rely Gao Song's speculation... even a re guess would bring massive trouble if it leaked.
Twenty Faces was a Silver of Moon who voluntarily gave up her life to fall and beco a Host. This implied that the faction or organization she belonged to possessed at least one Ti Gold or multiple Silver of Moon mbers.
Otherwise, it would be impossible to turn the strongest person in the organization into a re tool, letting them lurk beside soone else as a monitor for so long.
He had never heard of a lord personally acting as a spy.
Under this kind of pressure, Ming Po could not afford to let his guard down.
Based on his previous experiences...
In a Promotion ga, to decipher the encrypted worldbuilding and truly clear the instance, a battle at the end was almost inevitable. A Paradox was a monster Ming Po absolutely had to face.
Even though one could clear the ga without fighting a Paradox, doing so ant forfeiting the chance to inherit the entity's Title.
And from what he could tell, the Titles held by Paradoxes were quite useful. Otherwise, the Ga of Deception wouldn't send them to reclaim this power. The more Titles he stored, the stronger the Bacchus Shrine would beco—it was just like the various forms of a Kan Rider. Different forms could be used to counter different types of enemies.
He might not need to use them, but he couldn't afford not to have them.
Before the combat phase, there would likely be puzzles, survival challenges, or gas of luck.
Between Detective and Werewolf, one had weaker combat prowess, while the other had stats too low and costs too high.
Frankenstein, as a Title from the Domain of Force, would cause Ming Po's intelligence to decline. Even if he couldn't feel it prominently... that slight drop might make all the difference.
Though Madman had obvious negative effects and was notoriously difficult to remove once equipped, its active effect was a rare "all-attribute boost." When facing an unknown type of Promotion ga, Madman's versatility was incredibly strong.
Moreover, Madman had completed an evolution.
After gaining the Silver Crown suffix, it granted immunity to actively triggered cognitive interference like Gao Song's Mistletoe.
Ming Po picked up another bottle.
It was a bottle of absinthe, only about the size of his palm. Rather than liquor, it looked more like a large bottle of perfu.
The glass was as crystal clear as an erald, the liquid inside shimring with a brilliant green hue under the light.
Painted on the bottle was a man struggling with all his might, using every ounce of strength in his body to push a boulder up a mountain.
And on the back, right next to the word [Madman], was a stamped silver crown label.
So this is what liquor containing a Title looked like.
"Sisyphus, huh..."
Ming Po stared blankly at the illustration on the bottle.
The Madman actually referred to... Sisyphus.
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