"Little Li! Little Li! Little Li! Little Li! Little Li! Little Li!"
"Doctor, please restrain yourself a bit."
Mobius's crazy ranting echoed in the courtyard. At this moment, Klein's obstruction seemed so pale and powerless.
It was hard to say how much intention to obstruct she actually had. Her Doctor's research results would ultimately be processed and perfected by Klein, so in a sense, she herself was indirectly enjoying the bonus of inspiration amplification brought by the Grand Time-Robbing Gift.
It was just like the admin of a certain NSFW group chat pulling a gay guy into the group, only to find that this gay guy was the most active in posting various resources every day.
When others asked him why he was so enthusiastic, he frankly said that just imagining the look of you guys popping a boner when looking at the resources was enough to make him pop a boner.
"Go away!"
As the newly appointed Enforcer of Anti-Entropy, Little Goose had naturally heard of Dr. Mobius's famous name and style of doing things.
Therefore, she was extremely shocked by the heaven-defying words and actions before her. She still tried hard to peel the Snake-Snake, who was clinging onto Little Li like an octopus, off of him.
Regarding this, the attitude of everyone on Hyperion could basically be summarized as: The neighbor to the east brings a stool, the neighbor to the west brings a leather whip, the neighbor to the south brings slippers, and the neighbor to the north brings iron chains.
Clearly, Jail-Snake's psychotic behavior of disregarding the occasion had already incited public outrage.
"Phew, saved."
A moment later, having finally escaped the entanglement, Fuli ran to the other side of the courtyard, tidying up his clothes that had been pulled into a mess.
A gentle and steady male voice timely entered his ears, carrying a trace of an imperceptible smile: "You're very popular, Fuli."
"Uncle Yang, please don't make fun of me."
The person in question, having tidied up his appearance, looked at Welt Yang. At this moment, this refined and amiable uncle was sitting behind a stall that had quite an otaku culture vibe.
The stall was full of beautiful things in eyes, displaying various dazzling mecha models, HOMU dolls, and complete sets of comic books.
The man pushed up his glasses: "Right now, it might be more appropriate to call me the manga artist Mutuski Nindou."
Regarding this great contributor who assisted Hyperion in successfully arriving at the Luofu, Fuli and the others did not part ways with him after the mission ended.
While chatting on the way, they heard that the other party intended to take advantage of this grand event to set up a stall to sell some merchandise. So they helped contact the Realm-Keeping Commission responsible for this area and secured a nice little stall for him right next to the Hyperion base.
Welt was a bit hesitant at first, but couldn't withstand the overflowing enthusiasm of the young people.
Especially Bronya. When she learned that he was the original author of HOMU's Great Adventure and Arahato, Mutsuki Nindou, golden light directly shot out of the girl's eyes, wishing she could become his apprentice on the spot.
Unable to decline the great hospitality, Old Yang had no choice but to secretly contact Einstein, asking her to cancel his original stall. He then settled here in his personal capacity, incidentally monitoring the unstable factor that was Mobius.
But how to put it?
Witnessing Mobius, his nominal subordinate, expose such an impactful side with his own eyes, Welt's long-dormant inspiration as a creator surged wildly.
Seeing him take out a sketchbook and pencil and start sketching rapidly, Fuli closed the distance in three steps and two steps: "Uncle Yang, what are you drawing?"
"The planning concept for a new original animation."
Welt didn't raise his head; the tip of his pen slid quickly across the paper.
Soon, the image of a girl wearing an exquisite mask leaped onto the paper.
She had golden hair as brilliant as the sun and noble purple eyes. An elegant black dress perfectly outlined her exquisite petite body, exuding a gorgeous and mysterious aura overall.
However, the girl's behavior in the picture was vastly different from this noble appearance—in the storyboard with a gloomy rainy night background, she fell from her chair in a wretched posture, roaring hoarsely, "Saki-chan! Saki-chan! Saki-chan! Saki-chan!" while crawling darkly on the ground as if losing her mind.
That crazy and demented look, compared to the Mobius just now, actually had a shocking feeling of the student surpassing the master.
"Uh..."
Seeing Old Yang sink into the world of creation unable to extricate himself, Fuli instinctively took a small step back, and the domain of the Grand Time-Robbing Gift that originally enveloped the other party contracted accordingly.
"Hmm?"
Welt frowned.
Just in those few minutes, he had almost conceptualized more than half of the plot outline for this animation tentatively named MyGO.
Just at the exciting point where the key plot unfolded, the surging tide of inspiration seemed to be suddenly cut off by a floodgate, becoming sluggish again.
After pondering for a long time, he shook his head, preparing to hand over the semi-finished script in his hand to the animation director.
With so many talents in the production crew, it shouldn't be a problem to complete this script, right?
On the other side, Fuli, completely unaware that he had indirectly created a masterpiece animation, casually walked to the small room where the equipment enhancement furnaces were located.
When he first entered the courtyard earlier, he had caught a glimpse of a familiar back figure here out of the corner of his eye.
"Looking at it now, it really is you."
"You know me?"
World Serpent senior cadre Natasha Cioara, also known as the "Little Island Exploding Raven," glanced at him upon hearing the voice. Then she quickly withdrew her gaze, focusing on pressing the enhancement furnace activation button.
A soft white light flashed, and a beautifully crafted rifle with an enhancement level of +12 came fresh out of the oven.
"Very good!"
Raven clenched her fist excitedly and nodded, a satisfied look appearing on her face.
Immediately after, she took out a piece of armor with spiritual light flashing on its surface from her portable storage equipment and tossed it into the activated enhancement furnace again.
"What are you doing?"
Fuli asked strangely.
"Can't you tell? Enhancing equipment, and then bringing it back to the Imaginary Tree to sell!" Cioara crossed her arms and answered matter-of-factly: "I haven't paid a single cent less for the enhancement material fees you stipulated, so don't try to find fault."
After a B-Rank weapon reached +12, its performance in certain aspects was sufficient to rival low-tier A-Rank equipment.
Then, when a C-Rank weapon reached +12, it could naturally surpass many mass-produced standard B-Rank equipment.
The most crucial thing was that reaching +12 was guaranteed to succeed as long as you had the money. As for how much money it would cost, don't mind that; anyway, it wouldn't shatter as long as you didn't force it to +13.
Thus, the astute Miss Raven seized this business opportunity, buying up and enhancing these low-tier equipment on a large scale. She planned to make a huge profit after returning, adding bricks and tiles to her dream of a villa on a small island.
Fuli asked in surprise: "No, are you just appearing in front of us so openly?"
As soon as the words left his mouth, he realized that Natasha Cioara's identity as a World Serpent cadre and the fact that she possessed the Seven Thunders of Retribution had not yet been exposed.
In the other party's perception, the Hyperion crew had no idea that the mysterious sniper who engaged in an earth-shattering sniper duel with Mei from thousands of miles away at the end of the Kanas incident was her.
Since that was the case, what need was there to hide?
"Alright, then carry on."
Having figured this out, Fuli didn't say anything more. He just gave a customary reminder: "Don't forget the rules. Each person can enhance a maximum of three pieces of equipment at a time. Once you use up your attempts, you have to go to the back of the line and queue up again."
"I'm not blind. I can see that giant notice board over there, and I can even more clearly see the alloy fist the size of an excavator on that Azure Dragon Mech-God."
Cioara responded grumpily, her attitude not exactly friendly.
Back then, she had painstakingly saved enough money to buy her beloved Crescent Island. Before she even had time to think about the renovation plans, she watched it turn into nothingness in the Imaginary collapse caused by Kiana going berserk.
Facing these irreconcilable island-bombing enemies, the fact that Cioara hadn't attacked them directly was already on account of her not being able to beat their whole group single-handedly.
But it didn't matter. Although her attitude was bad, Fuli had already secretly planned to casually leak the news that she was suspected of holding the Seven Thunders of Retribution to Mei later.
As for how the Queen of Thunder would handle this old acquaintance who delivered herself to the door afterward—whether medium rare, medium well, or well done—would depend entirely on the girl's own mood.
Before long, Cioara's three chances were used up.
She stored the enhanced equipment in her storage space, walked expressionlessly to the end of the line again, and prepared to start a new round of queuing.
Retracting his gaze, Fuli stroked his chin, pondering whether to tell her the news that after returning to the Imaginary Tree, Hyperion will regularly hold equipment enhancement events. By then, not only will these equipments you hoarded be useless, but you will also lose a huge sum of money.
In the end, he decided to keep silent. As Miss Raven calculated the huge amount of crystals she could get from scalping weapons, the longing and joyful smile on her face was too dazzling.
The boy was kind-hearted; he really couldn't bear to tell her this bad news in advance.
"Next, it's your turn."
He looked at the slender figure entering the room: "It's you?"
"It is me, Your Excellency."
The pretty girl in a cloak with silver hair, holding a giant scythe, nodded slightly. She was exactly that member of the Mourning Poetry Society.
Noticing Fuli's gaze, she took a half-step back imperceptibly, her voice soft and aloof: "Your Excellency, please do not come too close to me."
Is she disgusted by me?
Fuli scratched his head awkwardly. Upholding the principle that the customer is god, he readily stepped away from the operating position.
The girl stepped forward, trying hard to recall the steps she had seen on the notice board earlier, and placed the purple scythe, which was longer than an adult, into the enhancement port.
It didn't fit in; hers was very big.
"Th-This..."
Her slender hands froze in midair helplessly. Her light purple beautiful eyes looked at Fuli, revealing a trace of a plea for help.
"There's an adjustment device next to it. Turning the knob can adjust the size of the opening."
"Alright, thank you, Your Excellency."
She tried operating it, and the opening indeed successfully expanded, allowing her to smoothly put the scythe into the furnace.
Light and shadow flickered dozens of times, interspersed with a few instances of energy dissipating from enhancement failures.
Finally, the +12 scythe came fresh out of the oven. A gloomy purple ominous brilliance flowed on the blade, and its aura was much stronger than before.
The girl let out a long sigh of relief and carefully took it out.
"Do you have any other equipment that needs enhancement?"
Fuli asked according to the procedure.
"No more, only her."
The girl shook her head. On the plain and elegant corner of her mouth under the cloak's hood, a shallow smile appeared, carrying some joy yet still restrained.
"If you have friends who also need enhancement, you are welcome to bring them along. During the Luminary Wardance, we will all be here." Fuli picked up the notebook beside him used for recording: "And if it's convenient, could you do a simple registration?"
The enhancement furnace project was still in the continuous optimization stage. As the creator, Mei urgently needed to collect various usage data and feedback. This was also one of the reasons they allowed Galaxy Rangers to enhance on credit.
"Must I register?"
Hearing this, the girl's attitude revealed a hint of hesitation.
"You don't need a real name; just providing a commonly used code name and contact information will do. Naturally, this is not mandatory, but if you come again next time, you can enjoy a 20% discount. The same goes for friends you bring along."
"Alright." The kind-hearted girl seemed touched by the fact that her friends could also get a discount. She said softly: "Your Excellency can call me Reverie Butterfly, and my contact information is—"
It really is her.
Even though he had guesses before, hearing this name, Fuli still felt secretly awe-inspiring in his heart.
The Maid of the Shadow of Death, the Ace of the Mourning Poetry Society, the Supervising Saintess of Aidelia, the Chrysos Heir of the River Styx and Death.
Legend had it that she was accompanied by death all year round. Any life touched by her fingertips would wither and return to nothingness. Her surroundings were encircled by a shadow-like domain of death; even the Bone-Draped Grass, which breathed the breath of death, would all wither and dissolve.
This was probably also the reason why Reverie Butterfly intentionally avoided physical contact just now.
Fuli also didn't know if the Stigma of Death on his body could grant immunity to this person's touch, but he wasn't about to risk his little life just to satisfy this bit of curiosity.
"We very much look forward to Miss Reverie Butterfly's usage feedback."
Therefore, he merely watched the slender figure of the girl wrapping her cloak tightly leave alone, only retracting his gaze when she disappeared around the corner of the courtyard.
"Stop looking! What's there to look at, hmph!"
Well, another reason to snap out of it was his own awkward big white lazy cat.
On her phone screen, the video recording the battle in the plaza just now was playing.
As a warm-up famous scene of the Luminary Wardance, the duel between the Artisan and the Sword Champion was already the center of attention.
And Fuli, who was able to defeat both of them simultaneously with an overwhelming advantage, became the new focal point this time.
But in Kiana's eyes, this was a completely different matter.
"Keep looking, keep looking! Your eyeballs are about to fall out!"
The girl puffed up her cheeks, her sharp gaze sweeping over his trouser legs.
Not bad, there aren't more than fifty tally marks written on it by other women.
"This is where you don't understand." Fuli shook his head seriously: "So what if she is a beauty? Peel off the skin, and it's nothing but two hundred and six bones, flesh, blood, filth, hair, and intestines. Viewing a beauty as white bones makes my heart devoid of desires, free from desire and fear. This can be called seeing the true nature of all living beings—"
Kiana interrupted: "I don't understand. Where is the delicious food this Miss asked you to bring back?"
"Of course I bought it all."
Jail-Li flipped his hand, taking out the three starch sausages, five egg tarts, a bowl of lean meat meatballs, and three shiny big chicken legs that she specifically asked him to buy before leaving.
"Yay!"
With delicious food to bribe her, Kiana immediately cheered, taking them and starting to chew, chew, chew.
Seeing her mouth dripping with oil from eating, Fuli considerately handed over a cup of milk tea: "Drink something, don't choke."
"Oh, I told you not to buy milk tea! This Miss has been seriously losing weight lately!"
"It's zero sugar."
"Hmph, that's more like it!"
She took it, downed half in one breath, and smacked her lips suspiciously: "Strange, sugar-free actually tastes sweet?"
"Technology and ruthless work; it's probably sugar substitutes or some other chemical synthetics."
A certain someone spoke absolute nonsense, conveniently destroying the label that said 'Full Sugar'.
It's obvious he plans to fatten up Kiana until she's round and plump, and then gracefully accept her himself when no one else wants her. Bad, little Li, bad!
While the Fu-Ki duo was interacting happily, in the weapon exhibition hall on the other side of the base.
Her gaze swept over those new-style armaments full of cutting-edge technological vibes, as well as the nameless blonde S-Rank Valkyrie in the introduction videos who was repeatedly used as a target to demonstrate weapon efficiency, dying over and over again in various ways.
Durandal smiled without the smile reaching her eyes: "Miss Mei, the primary hypothetical enemy for these new equipments you developed couldn't possibly be me, right?"
"How could that be?" Mei, who was accompanying the tour, returned an impeccably elegant smile: "I still say the same thing, Miss Durandal. You always deserve better."
"Hehe."
"Hehe."
The Strongest Valkyrie and the Super-Electromagnetic Doctor stared at each other from across the space, as if invisible electric sparks were crackling at the boundary.
"Don't listen to her, Durandal."
The OL Big Bronya, who was checking the accounts, didn't raise her head, calmly tearing down her colleague's stage: "Since big brother entrusted the financial budget of Hyperion to me to manage, I will absolutely no longer allow certain people to do whatever they want like in the past, recklessly squandering precious research funds entirely based on personal interest."
Question: It is known that Bronya currently holds a budget of 1,000 crystals. Kiana applies for 114 crystals to buy snacks, and Mei applies for 514 crystals for new weapon research and development testing. Please answer, how much does Bronya have left in her hands now?
Answer: Still 1,000, plus two unread messages.
Naturally, according to the theory that going from luxury to frugality is difficult, in the eyes of Mei, who was used to being wealthy, the talent of this Financial Director was almost on par with Cao Zhi, who was brimming with talent.
He composed a poem in seven steps; she is a nine-step poet (miser).