Bai Luan yawned while waiting for Herta's spaceship to land.
Even without the Blessing of Abundance within his body, staying up all night was nothing to Bai Luan.
However, maintaining a high state of concentration while crafting curios continuously until now was quite taxing on his energy.
His eyelids felt heavy, just like when he was attending early self-study sessions in high school, struggling not to close them.
He needed rest now.
But he decided he would rest only after giving Herta the gifts he had prepared.
Under Bai Luan's tired gaze, the spaceship slowly landed, and Herta stepped out with her elegant and familiar gait, followed by the Herta Puppet holding a camera.
Bai Luan smiled and waved at them, and almost simultaneously, with a soft click, the Herta Puppet precisely captured the moment he waved.
Immediately afterward, the Herta Puppet sensed Bai Luan's poor state from the photograph.
How should she put it... Why did he have the air of a haggard husband?
Hmm... Don't say anything, but this look seemed to possess a unique kind of appeal.
Of course, despite these thoughts, the Herta Puppet was more concerned about what was actually wrong with Bai Luan.
So she quickly ran over to Bai Luan and asked:
"Did you not rest well?"
"Haha, I've been rushing to finish something recently, so I'm a bit tired, but it's not a big problem."
"That won't do, hurry up and res"
Before she could finish her sentence, a delicate staff reached out from behind her and unceremoniously nudged her aside.
"Even if he needs to rest."
Herta's voice, carrying a hint of proprietary declaration, sounded out.
"The one who should say that is this genius."
Having swept aside the "meddling" puppet, Herta walked up to Bai Luan, frowning slightly as she scrutinized him:
"What's wrong with you? You look haggard, as if your inspiration has been completely drained."
"I prepared some gifts for you."
Bai Luan did not answer her question directly. Instead, he pulled out a bulging purple velvet pouch from behind him and handed it over.
Herta was slightly confused. She took the pouch, opened it, and found it stuffed full of gold coins.
"Gold coins?"
She casually picked one up.
The front of the coin was meticulously engraved with a side profile relief of herself; the lines were smooth, and the expression was captured perfectly. The back featured a floral pattern she favored, rendered in exquisite detail.
Even she couldn't help but sigh in admiration that it was truly well-made.
"Why did you suddenly start making commemorative coins?"
She looked at Bai Luan, her tone slightly playful.
Bai Luan smiled upon hearing this.
"The 'you' on every coin is different, you know."
"Oh?"
Herta raised an eyebrow, starting to find this interesting. She took another coin from the pouch.
Sure enough, the expression, demeanor, and even the minute details of the hairstyle were all different.
Some were reserved, some languid, and some carried a hint of investigative curiosity, but without exception, they all perfectly showcased her beauty from different angles.
Truly worthy of this genius.
Herta casually weighed the pouch, estimating the number of gold coins inside.
So many coins... it must have taken him a great deal of effort.
"Not bad. this genius will keep them."
Of course, these were not simple commemorative coins; they were hundreds of curio commemorative coins.
However, the effect of this curio was difficult to explain convincingly, so Bai Luan chose not to elaborate.
『Curio: Herta Revival Coin』
『A Revival Coin unique to Herta. When Herta suffers a fatal injury, one coin is automatically consumed, refreshing her physical state to her usual peak condition.』
When Bai Luan created these commemorative coins, he also discussed the data from the simulated universe's Blessing with Ark and added a cause-and-effect effect to these Revival Coins.
This was intended as a test run, primarily for the sake of Cyrene.
The effect was decent; these Revival Coins would judge for themselves whether they should be triggered.
Only when Herta genuinely suffered a lethal injury that directly led to a death outcome would a Revival Coin be consumed.
To give a simple example, if an ordinary person holding this Revival Coin was shot.
From the moment the ordinary person was injured, they would have numerous possibilities: they might receive timely medical treatment, be saved, and avoid death, or they might be less fortunate and die from excessive bleeding.
In the timelines where they would receive timely treatment and be saved, the Revival Coin would not be triggered.
However, in the timelines where they would die because of that bullet, the Revival Coin would activate, preventing death.
During the period when Herta was away at the Space Station, he created tens of thousands of commemorative coins.
Yet, only the one or two hundred coins in the pouch possessed the Revival Coin curio effect.
The remaining commemorative coins had effects that were mostly useless.
For instance, no matter how they were tossed, the portrait side would always land face up, or once they started spinning, they would unnaturally continue spinning for an extremely long time.
Bai Luan simply stored these commemorative coins with useless curio effects inside a spatial curio and chose not to give them to Herta.
Of course, these Revival Coins were not everything Bai Luan had prepared. Besides these, he had also crafted other life-saving curios.
"Besides these, I have a few other gifts. They might not be very aesthetically pleasing, but I still hope you will accept them."
Bai Luan took out a Totem of Undying from Minecraft.
『Curio: Totem of Undying』
『When suffering fatal damage, grants immunity to death once. Enters cooldown after use, refreshing the count after twenty-four system hours.』
And the curio he unexpectedly created in Belobog, the True Shield of Preservation.
『Curio: True Shield of Preservation』
『Even an Aeon would need to strike you twice.』
The former can withstand one more fatal attack after the Revival Coins are exhausted, though its judgment lacks the cause-and-effect ability of the Revival Coins.
As for the True Shield of Preservation, it is a one-time use curio that is destroyed after use.
This curio is quite special; although the effect is powerful, the mechanism is somewhat flawed.
Its upper limit is being able to withstand one attack from an Aeon, but only if you use it to block an Aeon's attack.
Through his own tests, Bai Luan discovered that this curio was simply a shield that could block anything once. If you used it to block someone blowing air at you, it would also be destroyed.
But it didn't matter. After painstakingly figuring out the principle of this curio in the Little Black Room, Bai Luan had achieved mass production.
However, the mass-produced Shields of Preservation had made some compromises.
『Curio: Shield of Preservation』
『Effect is identical to the True Shield of Preservation, but disappears after forty-eight system hours of existence.』
At this point, Bai Luan noticed an anomaly: the later the curio, the more restrictions its effect carried.
The Revival Coins were perfect, but the subsequent Totem of Undying and Shield of Preservation were far inferior.
The later mass-produced Shield of Preservation even had a limitation on its existence duration.
After completing the mass production of the Shield of Preservation, he failed to create any more decent life-saving curios.
Simultaneously, even the output of the Revival Coins had significantly decreased.
Clearly, this was abnormal.
Bai Luan felt that this must be the omnipresent equilibrium exerting its influence, beginning to target him from all angles.
After forcing himself to create dozens more Revival Coins while resisting the power of the equilibrium... Herta returned.
Otherwise, Bai Luan would have continued to butt heads with this equilibrium for a while longer.
As for the price of doing all this... Bai Luan currently felt physically similar to having pulled multiple all-nighters in a row.
He felt like he was on the verge of ascension.
He was now so exhausted that he genuinely needed a sick leave note to rest.
Herta looked at the curios, then looked at Bai Luan and asked:
"What did you see in fate this time?"
Bai Luan was not surprised that Herta could keenly sense the underlying reasons.
His actions were explanation enough, and Herta had never been a foolish person.
Furthermore, in her eyes, he had always carried the mysterious halo of a Prophet.
He chose neither to hide nor to prevaricate, but instead told her honestly:
"I saw a future... concerning you. One that isn't particularly good, but... is genuinely possible."
Herta watched him quietly, waiting for him to continue:
"So... do you have any warnings for this genius? Like, advising me not to do something dangerous?"
"A warning?"
Bai Luan slowly shook his head, his tired eyes revealing an incredibly clear determination.
"No, I won't tell you such useless nonsense."
He took a deep breath, as if gathering his last reserves of energy, and continued:
"As your assistant, I will only say this
please accept these items I prepared for you. They will come in handy."
Bai Luan's gaze met Herta's. Despite his exhaustion, his gentleness and support had not diminished in the slightest.
He gave her a reassuring, even encouraging, smile.
"And then, go ahead and do whatever you wish. I will handle everything you need, just as before, Ms. Herta."
Herta gazed at Bai Luan, looking at his strained, weary face, the unreserved trust and support in his eyes, and the heavy assurance he had handed over.
She thought,
Even if she searched the entire vast universe, she doubted she would ever find a second assistant who understood her like him.
T/N: Can we reach 100 reviews?
I wan't to try writing fanfic myself, but the problem is i don't even really watching anime or reading manga...
Or any other media...
I'll be honest, I haven't even watched like the top 10 anime of the year, not even Frieren or other series that people goes nut about...
I used to be consuming quite a lot of anime comic(Manga&Manhwa) and novel, trying to escape from reality and depression, But when depression reach a breaking point, i just, i can't even live for myself...
The biggest regret i have has was why i have to be such a problematic child and Disappointing my parents, and when i snap back, it was already too late, that one minus point of being the youngest child i guess... I wasn't even 20 when they left... But hey i already 20 and still doing what?...
If there was button that delete everything about yourself or whatever that is, I 100% pressed it, i know my problem... And you know what? According to 'my' religion, i will be on the hell side, it fair I guess...
All my Four older sibling was already married and 3 of them was having a kid, yeah no i don't think i will be ever get married.
Sorry to just dumping my depression...
So do you guys any recommendation for me to watch?