Ask yourself: after experiencing insane luck—getting a "double gold egg" in just three pulls—what could possibly make you truly feel the sting of "joy turning to sorrow"?
Answer: forgetting to "lock in" your pull midway.
Time now: 7:30 a.m., over three hours later.
Renjiro, having finished breakfast at the orphanage and set out alone for the dungeon, only realized at the central plaza…
"Damn it, huge loss!"
Perhaps this was what the legends called "good fortune never comes twice."
Sigh~ be content, be content. Consider it a free Keqing wife… rounding up, I still profit.
Renjiro started self-soothing.
Ahem~ honestly, he only thought this internally. No way would he say it aloud. Not even through the Mental Link.
After all, Keqing, once max-favor, had already awakened her true consciousness.
Back when Genshin Impact was just a virtual game, joking about characters as "items" was fine. But now, this was reality—careless words could easily offend.
A joke still had to have limits.
Anyway…
"Better lock it in first. Also…"
Renjiro thought: lesson learned, never forget again.
"From now on, any gold pull must be locked immediately."
With that decided, the third lock-in slot went straight to someone… well, you know, a certain wind-loving rascal.
At least Venti was the dignified Wind God. Although, after arriving in Orario as Barbatos, he might soon get attention from some Moon Goddess sharpening her blade…
"But what does that have to do with me?"
Renjiro grinned mischievously.
Considering Artemis was fairly measured, he secretly looked forward to the scene.
Two gods, one chasing, one fleeing with bows… maybe a wandering bard would even sing, "Faster than flight!" Heh~ just imagining it was hilarious.
Or perhaps…
Barbara:"Stop fighting already, you two!"
What a tangled fate…
Anyway, moving on.
Since the "Antares Incident" ended, weeks of daily three-pulls had fattened Renjiro's resources considerably.
First, 14 four- and five-star Genshin characters in total.
In pull order: Xiao, Fischl, Diona, Razor, Xingqiu, Barbara, Amber, Ningguang, Zhongli, Mona, Xiangling, Sayu, Raiden Shogun, and… Keqing.
Looking purely at Constellation levels…
Xingqiu: 1
Diona: 2
Barbara: 3
The rest: 0
Weapons…
A lot of four-star Genshin weapons had accumulated.
The Catch alternated between Xiao and the Electro Archon.
Their primary weapons were usually four-star The Waster and The Fish or the three-star level 5 Black Tassel.
Fischl had her signature weapon, The Mitternachts Waltz, replacing her previous three-star level 5 Slingshot.
Diona used a level 5 three-star bow with a secondary stat boosting HP—Recurve Bow—since she hadn't pulled the four-star Sacrificial Bow yet.
Razor had Dragonblood Blade and later acquired the four-star artifact Blackcliff Longsword.
Xingqiu alternated Cool Steel and Harbinger of Dawn—both level 5 three-star weapons.
Barbara naturally wielded Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayer—practically a divine weapon now that the single-effect restriction was removed.
Renjiro even had backups ready. A chance to trigger a multi-buff would be a one-shot killer.
Other characters:
Amber alternated Messenger and Sharpshooter's Oath.
Ningguang had Solar Pearl.
Mona had Wandering Evenstar.
Sayu had the two-handed sword Rainslasher
All four were just level 1 refined four-star weapons.
And now, when Raiden Shogun and Keqing arrived…
Keqing didn't need to fuss; the recent dozens of pulls already netted her the Solar Pearl Set, so she could use the four-star sword Lion's Roar.
As for the Shogun… or Ayan…
"She won't mind using 'The Fish,' right?"
Currently, Renjiro didn't even have a single five-star Genshin weapon, so he couldn't equip Engulfing Lightning for Ayan.
Instinctively, he remembered a meme from before his world-crossing days: "I farmed dozens of worlds for a level 5 fish spear… and Ayan just tilted her head in disgust."
Ahem~
"Hope that doesn't happen this time."
======
Meanwhile, elsewhere…
"Thanks for coming with me, Aether."
Welf, long absent online, walked alongside the shorter, gold-haired, golden-eyed boy through a narrow path in Orario's Second District.
The red-haired youth carrying a large blade glanced at his companion. "You just returned from an expedition yesterday, right? Aren't you resting today?"
"Don't worry. I also need to head to the dungeon."
Indeed, grinding for magic stones alone would be inefficient.
Currently, the Ten Rings of the Human King magic reserve was barely enough to fill three rings.
Yes, just three.
Thanks to the Starry Abyss skill granting a 44× magic regeneration buff at night, he managed to stockpile this little amount.
Without consuming magic stones, filling the Ten Rings of the Human King reservoir quickly would have been impossible.
Remember, this reservoir could sustain a single Genshin character for ten full days.
Compare this to pre-awakening:
Level 1 Renjiro had magic "s-999," allowing a single character for only one hour.
Now, Level 2 lets a single character stay for just over two hours.
This is the total magic he possessed.
Thus, without the Starry Abyss buff, he couldn't summon multiple Genshin characters for extended battles.
But now…
Once the Ten Rings of the Human King were full, he could go wild.
This skill was essentially ten nuclear power plant–level mana furnaces on him.
And the vessels? Just ten black high-grade mithril rings that consumed magic stones.
No loss in sight.
So…
"I guess this counts as a kind of 'money power'."
Aether, assigned another grinding task today, muttered this silently.
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100 Power Stones = Bonus Chapter
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