"Dear friend, why are you smiling?"
"Because I thought of something happy." Chen Li's smile was radiant.
"Ermm..." Argenti could sense Chen Li's genuine sincerity and joy.
However, Argenti couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. The smile didn't seem to carry just happiness; there was something else mixed in.
"Don't overthink it, Argenti. You can rest assured, I am determined to help resurrect the pitiful father of that young lady you want to help!" Chen Li said, his words slow and resolute.
"Then I'll have to trouble you, dear friend."
"No trouble at all. None at all." Chen Li shook his head with a smile.
How could he possibly stand by and do nothing when a matter of life and death was at stake?
What was that saying again?
Be anxious for the anxious, answer every plea, perform a good deed daily, and reflect on oneself thrice!
Although Chen Li wasn't Sushang or a Cloud Knight, Sushang knew the Sword of Taixu, and Chen Li also knew the Sword of Taixu.
To carry on the glory of the Taixu school on the Xianzhou Luofu, Chen Li didn't mind helping Argenti out.
A different Taixu? That wasn't important!
"Then have you found her, dear friend?"
"Well... I've found her, but it seems she left in a hurry because she didn't want to trouble the Cloud Knights. It'll take a bit of effort to catch... to help her," Chen Li said.
After consuming the gaze of HooH the Equilibrium, Chen Li had gained the ability to see the world as the Aeon did... in human terms, he could see the connections between all things.
Although Chen Li had no direct relationship with Sparkle, the money Argenti had was given to him by Chen Li, which meant Argenti's money was equivalent to Chen Li's money.
Even though it was only an indirect connection, it was still usable.
So, after a brief calculation, Chen Li discovered the culprit.
When he got the result of his divination, he was stunned for a moment.
But when he saw that Sparkle's Friends Circle location was indeed on the Xianzhou, a brilliant smile spread across his face.
Excellent, excellent. This time, it really was the work of a damn Masked Fool.
This time, Chen Li truly believed in the power of attraction.
It seemed his friends and his bonds were drawn to each other!
Just like how Argenti, who held a Friends Circle terminal, had all his money scammed away by Sparkle, who also held a Friends Circle terminal.
"Take these Strale for now. Let me know when you run out." Chen Li tossed a new bag of Strale to Argenti.
He was not at all stingy with a currency like Strale. After all, he had two meal tickets on the Xianzhou.
One was Danshu of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus, and the other was a Vidyadhara Elder.
Whenever he was short on Strale, he could just extort a sum from one of them.
No, not extort...
They would give him the money, and they would have to thank him for it.
"I've troubled you, dear friend."
"Don't mention it." As Chen Li spoke, he took out a mask.
A red and white fox mask.
When using a normal item to forge a Curio, Chen Li would throw the useless Entries into the recycling bin, and the item would lose its anchor, effectively being destroyed.
But this mask, obtained from the Aeon of Elation, was different. Chen Li had only extracted a single [Elation] Entry, leaving the rest untouched.
Therefore, apart from lacking the power of Elation it once carried, the mask still belonged to Sparkle.
And since it belonged to Sparkle, it meant the mask had a connection to her.
Coincidentally, Chen Li could now see the connections between all things. And coincidentally, he had a Curio in his hand that could sever anything.
Standing beside him, Argenti watched as Chen Li took out a pair of small, pocket-sized scissors and snipped the air above the mask.
In a way Argenti couldn't see, the connection between the mask and Sparkle was severed by Chen Li, and then... reconnected!
When Chen Li placed the mask on the right side of his head, it automatically attached itself.
In a daze, Argenti seemed to see the young lady who was selling herself to bury her father...
"Dear friend, you are truly amazing. For a moment, it seemed as if you had transformed into that young lady. Is the next step to use this mask to find her?" Argenti asked, marveling at the wondrous nature of Curios.
"No. It's to have that young lady find me." Chen Li shook his head.
"What do you mean?"
"I need only use a little trick, and she will pursue me of her own accord. You don't need to worry about the rest. Just watch me."
Chen Li was determined to make Sparkle suffer a crushing defeat!
After severing and reconnecting the link between the mask and Sparkle... whoever wore this mask was now the real Sparkle!
Of course, this wasn't perfect.
While it could transfer all the karma and connections generated by Chen Li onto Sparkle, it wouldn't work if he was being monitored or seen directly by someone.
It was like how even the most advanced hacking techniques could only delete data in a computer, but not physical books.
Hackers from Punklorde were an exception.
After sending Argenti off to watch advertisements by himself, Chen Li took out the Disguise Glasses and placed them on his nose. When the Disguise Glasses were paired with Sparkle's mask, which now had its "connection" altered...
"Oh my, what an adorable girl."
Elysia was drawn over by the scent.
"..." Chen Li stared blankly at Elysia, who had moved in close to inspect him, her expression shifting between intense interest and deep confusion. He slowly took off the glasses.
"Hmm? Chen Li, did you forge a new Curio?" Discovering that the girl she had just seen was actually Chen Li, Elysia wasn't disappointed at all. Instead, she was overjoyed.
"What do you want?"
"Well, it's just... can you turn into other beautiful girls?" Elysia asked curiously.
"This isn't a Curio. It's just a synergistic function between Myriad Phenomena Severance and the Disguise Glasses. If you want me to disguise myself as another beautiful girl, you'll need to obtain that girl's 'main body'," Chen Li explained.
"'Main body'?"
"The thing that best represents them."
For Sparkle, her mask was her main body.
For Shinpachi, his glasses were his main body.
For Amon, his monocle was his main body.
Only an item so closely associated with a person that seeing it alone would immediately identify them could be used for this trick.
Sever the connection, graft it onto himself, then use the Disguise Glasses to trigger the synergistic function for the disguise... This would allow him to make others misidentify him as someone else on both a physical and causal level, without changing his actual appearance.
It was somewhat similar to the Power of Existence from Shakugan no Shana, but not quite, as this was merely a deception.
It deceived both sight and connection, but it didn't usurp another's "existence."
"Then what's my main body?" Elysia asked curiously.
"You don't have one. You have pink hair, but so does Sakura. You wear thigh-high boots, but so does Vill-V. You have a garter, but everyone has garters. You don't have an overly distinct feature."
"Mmm... your words are so hurtful, Li-bao."
"But then again, it's the features that everyone has that have created the one-and-only Elysia. You yourself are your own main body—unique and irreplaceable."
"..."
"Why aren't you saying anything?" Chen Li tilted his head, looking at the suddenly silent Elysia.
Girls' hearts were so hard to understand. They didn't like hearing the truth, but they weren't happy when you tried to coax them either.
"Li-bao, a boy needs to be careful and protect himself when he's out and about. If your mouth is always this sweet, a bad woman is going to get ideas sooner or later," Elysia said, patting Chen Li's shoulder with a heavy heart.
She had only intended to tease him a little. They could trade a few blows and call it a peaceful draw.
But starting with your ultimate move? Is that reasonable? No, it's not.
How can you one-shot me with a 17-card hand?
Turns out, he really could.
If Chen Li had just been casually sweet-talking her, Elysia wouldn't have felt so pressured. But she felt that his words were incredibly sincere.
You're putting so much pressure on me like this.
[I may not be a professional romance-conquest system, but I think...]
[Alright, I'll shut up.]
The little sprite felt that ever since its consecutive failures with Acheron and Jingliu, it had lost its right to offer romantic advice.
No, I have to take back what I lost with my own two hands!
I must prove myself!
The little sprite observed and analyzed the relationship between Chen Li and every beautiful girl around him, looking for a breakthrough. Then, it would devise a grand scheme for Chen Li, one that would make him submit to it wholeheartedly!
"I'll remember your warning," Chen Li nodded at Elysia.
"Remembering is one thing, but do you really understand?"
"I don't, but I'm going to go play with girls now."
"???"
"Damn it, how dare she scam Argenti's money! Everyone in the Friends Circle knows Argenti is my good brother. Scamming Argenti's money is the same as scamming my money! Today she scams my money, tomorrow she'll scam my person! The day after, she'll be scamming the entire world!" Chen Li gritted his teeth, denouncing Sparkle's evil deeds.
"Oh, you scared me." Elysia clutched her chest and retorted.
"So, the girl Argenti helped, the one selling herself to bury her father, was actually a scammer?"
"A Masked Fool, to be precise," Chen Li corrected.
"What's the difference?"
"Let me explain. A scammer is different from a Masked Fool. A scammer's goal is to gain something for themselves. A Masked Fool, on the other hand, just wants to find joy in the process. Scammers are all despicable, but some Masked Fools will go to great lengths to help everyone, just to ensure the story's ending is as splendid as they expect."
In other words, a Masked Fool was a director, painstakingly shooting a film just for the audience's enjoyment... although in this case, the audience was the Masked Fool director themself.
And because different Masked Fools had different interpretations of "Elation," their "directing" styles varied wildly.
"So what are you going to do now?"
"Go give the Xianzhou a grand performance!"
"Huh?"
"But before that, I need to fulfill my promise to Sparkle."
Chen Li was not a man who broke his word.
Until Sparkle had settled her score with the Aeon of Elation, Chen Li wouldn't let her take the blame for him.
Sparkle vs. Aha, the Aeon of Elation.
The odds weren't great, but they weren't zero!
How could you just assume Sparkle couldn't defeat Aha?
And what if Sparkle was Aha?
The evidence was that both Sparkle and Aha enjoyed watching a good show.
Sparkle had her Elation mask, and Aha also had Sparkle's Elation mask.
And the two of them had never appeared at the same time!
The more you thought about it, the more terrifying it became!
Although Sparkle had yet to successfully challenge the Aeon of Elation, as long as she was willing to take the fall for the trouble Chen Li caused in the Honkai: Star Rail world, he didn't mind forging the Curio for her first.
Alright, the main reason was that his current crystal income relied entirely on Miracle Cards. He was down to his last 60 crystals. If he didn't get some business soon, he'd have nothing to eat.
Although the deal with Sparkle was small, and Sparkle herself was small, it was still income. Even a mosquito's leg was still meat.
"Tomorrow, I'll give Sparkle the Key of Fateful Invitation with the target already set, and let her go challenge the person—or rather, the Aeon—that I want her to challenge. I hope that Aeon will give me some face and agree to participate in the Elation Elbow King Championship!" Chen Li muttered loudly.
If he didn't inform the Aeon of Elation in advance, Aha might not necessarily respond to Sparkle's invitation.
However, after saying this, a new idea suddenly popped into his head.
What if he gave the Elation's Die to Sparkle? Who would win then, Sparkle or Aha?
[Dad]: I've gathered all the materials to forge the Curio that will help you find your fun. Are you ready to challenge the person I want to see a show from tomorrow?
[Sparkle]: I'm ready!
[Dad]: Are you really ready?
[Sparkle]: Yes, Dad.
[Dad]: Then I can rest in peace.
[Sparkle]: ?
[Dad]: I'm going to forge the Curio for you now. Do you have any requests for the mask's design?
[Sparkle]: I've sent you the blueprint.
[Dad]: I see it. But I have a suggestion, though I'm not sure if I should say it.
[Sparkle]: What suggestion?
[Dad]: Sparkle, you seem to be quite well-known among the Masked Fools, right? In that case, why don't you try to personally steal back the mask that your colleague stole from you? I can forge a Curio for you in the same style as your mask, just with a slightly different color. From now on, you'll be SP Sparkle, until you get your mask back yourself.
[Sparkle]: That sounds like a good idea, but...
[Dad]: The Entries on a Curio can be removed. Once you get your mask back, I'll help you transfer the Curio's function to your original mask. How about it?
[Sparkle]: An excellent suggestion. What I, Sparkle, have lost, I shall take back with my own two hands!
[Dad]: Then I wish you success, SP Sparkle.
Why call her SP Sparkle? Because starting tomorrow, Chen Li would be the real Sparkle!
Ten minutes later, Sparkle stared at the mask in her hands, lost in thought.
"Why does this mask look so much like the second one I lost?" Sparkle examined the Curio that Chen Li had forged in just ten minutes.
She really wanted to attribute this to Chen Li's peculiar sense of humor, as she had once shown him the second mask she had acquired.
But the sense of déjà vu this mask gave her was incredibly strong.
Her original mask was a fox mask, white on the left and red on the right.
The second one was red on the left and black on the right, also a fox mask.
That was why she had chosen that second mask out of thousands.
"Am I imagining things?" Sparkle scratched her head.
She didn't know what Chen Li's motive was for making her mask look like this, but she knew she had met a worthy opponent. This "Dad" was definitely a fellow enjoyer of fun, and the person he wanted her to challenge would be no pushover.
"I really don't know what kind of opponent he wants me to challenge tomorrow. I'm so looking forward to it. I love a challenge," Sparkle said to herself with a smile, tossing the mask in her hand.
She wasn't one to believe in coincidences. All coincidences were just inevitabilities.
Just like the Emanator of Elation who had conveniently brought her to the Xianzhou had once mentioned that an Emanator of Elation had appeared on the Xianzhou, but had quickly vanished for some unknown reason.
As of today, the reaction that could stir the Path of Elation had completely disappeared.
That Emanator felt that something was amiss with the Xianzhou, so after bidding farewell to Sparkle, they had fled.
Sparkle, however, felt that it was precisely because it was amiss that the Xianzhou Luofu was bound to witness an even greater show than a pink sun appearing in the sky!
She might not understand Emanators, but didn't she understand Masked Fools?
"Ah, whatever. As the ancient Xianzhou saying goes: A Masked Fool should enjoy the moment. Let me go try out this Curio's effect and find some fun!" Sparkle placed the mask on the left side of her hair.
[Deceitful Masquerade]: Can find people or events that match the user's interests. [Elation] is mutually attractive.
---o---
"...Why does it have such a cool name, but such a perfunctory effect?" Vill-V looked at Chen Li, perplexed.
Although she hadn't seen Chen Li forge a Curio that many times, she was certain that this one was by far the most half-assed.
The previous times, he had added a large number of crystals to the forge, but this time, he had only added five.
"Because the person who wanted this Curio had a very simple request. They just wanted to use it to find some fun nearby. If there's fun, they watch. If there's no fun, they create it themselves..."
"That description... the person who commissioned this Curio from you wouldn't happen to be a Masked Fool, would they?" Vill-V joked.
"Heh, it actually is a Masked Fool."
"???"
Vill-V, who hadn't expected to run into a fellow professional, was taken aback.
Her true profession was a Trickster, which was different from a Masked Fool of Elation, but she was an Emanator of Elation, after all.
Even though she had used all her Emanator power to create a mask.
"Vill-V, how is your Persona Mask developing?" Chen Li asked.
He hadn't returned to the Flame-Chasers' base to forge a Curio just because he was bored.
"After two days of hard work, this mask has grown sufficiently. At full power, it should be able to make the entire Flame-Chaser organization stand up," Vill-V said after some thought.
Theoretically, it would be easy for an Emanator of Elation to destroy the Flame-Chasers, but when Vill-V invented things, she never focused on their destructive power, but rather their functionality.
Therefore, she had sacrificed the lower limit of her Emanator power to raise its upper limit. As long as the mask was continuously placed on strange and unusual objects to collect more personas, its upper limit could be constantly raised.
It also had the property of animating any object.
Its effect was no different from some novice-level Curios. The only difference was its exorbitant cost.
Even if you fleeced the Aeon of Elation bald, you wouldn't be able to get many masks like this.
"Among them, the weapons with special attributes that you created with the Synthesis Platform provide the mask with far more spirituality than ordinary items," Vill-V added.
Spirituality was also a factor that determined the strength of the personas within the Persona Mask.
Although the personas awakened by the mask were pure and weak, there was a difference between weak and weak.
Just as both humans and blue whales are mammals, the size difference between them is a little... more than a little.
This was one of the new ideas Vill-V had after observing the Suiyang in the Artisanship Commission's Creation Furnace.
"It can already cover the entire Flame-Chaser base? Not bad. I might need to use your Persona Mask later. Just giving you a heads-up."
"I don't mind, but what are you going to do?"
"Cause a little trouble."
"???"
"Don't worry, it's really small. It won't cause trouble for anyone else. It'll just make certain people furious and want to find me when they discover someone is impersonating them," Chen Li said.
Sparkle taking the blame for him was the forging fee she needed to pay.
But Sparkle scamming all the money he had given to Argenti was another matter entirely.
Chen Li had always been very clear when it came to settling accounts.
"Then have fun." Vill-V offered no comment.
That's how Masked Fools were. If you wanted to watch others for fun, you had to be prepared to be watched for fun yourself.
Those who laugh at others will themselves be laughed at. This was the way of the world.
"Are you two really going to use my lab as your chat room? Do you have any respect for me, the owner of this lab?!" Seeing Chen Li and Vill-V chatting away happily, Mobius finally couldn't take it anymore.
"Yes, yes. Speaking of which, how's Elysia? After her projection was canceled, did the experience return to her main body? Did her power increase?" Chen Li said, perfunctorily appeasing Mobius while asking Vill-V.
"I'm not sure. From the moment the projection was canceled half an hour ago, Elysia has been encased in crystal. She's fallen into a deep sleep and I've sent her back to her room. It seems she's digesting the vast amount of power she suddenly obtained," Vill-V said.
Elysia's situation was different from that of Vill-V, Mobius, and Sakura.
The three of them had either not received much of a boon from their Paths, or had turned their Path's power into something else.
But the power Elysia had gained as an Emanator of Pure Beauty was a huge boost for her.
"Preliminary speculation suggests that Elysia is currently combining her authority as the Herrscher of Human: Ego with her authority as an Emanator of Pure Beauty." Seeing that Chen Li and Vill-V had no intention of moving their conversation elsewhere, Mobius reluctantly joined in.
"I see... I wonder what kind of changes there will be." Chen Li nodded.
Elysia's identity as the Herrscher of Human: Ego and her authority as the Herrscher of Origin were highly compatible with the Path of Pure Beauty.
But first, she had spent two days as a pink sun on the Xianzhou, and then she was frozen in a crystal and put to sleep after her projection returned. It truly had a fairytale-like beauty to it.
It seems Elysia was fated to have this trial.
"I wonder how long it will take for Elysia to digest it all..."
"It's easy to find out. Why don't you just accelerate civilization with me?" Chen Li had a good idea.
"Forget it. I still have vivid memories of the tragedy that occurred the last time you accelerated civilization," Vill-V disagreed.
"You have the nerve to say that? You're the one who dismantled the Ultimate Teigu into pieces, which had the biggest impact on the Imperial Capital," Chen Li shot her a look.
"No way. It was clearly Mobius and Ruan Mei who had the biggest impact. I put the Ultimate Teigu back together after I took it apart, but the genes of the flying-type Danger Beasts they modified still haven't been reverted," Vill-V protested.
"They haven't been reverted, that's true. But Najenda has already sent people to capture all the genetically modified flying-type Danger Beasts and put them in a zoo to perform in shows," Mobius said.
"Is that how they solved it? How barbaric!"
"What's so barbaric? They get food, drink, and entertainment. Isn't that easier than guarding the Imperial Palace in the skies every day?" Mobius waved her hand dismissively.
"I think the last civilization acceleration was an accident. This time, I'll join the script too. I guarantee I'll keep an eye on Mobius and Ruan Mei," Chen Li said.
"Why me and Ruan Mei?" Mobius was not pleased with Chen Li's statement.
Ruan Mei, who was sipping tea on the side, also glanced over.
"Because I'm afraid you two will create something outrageous." Chen Li looked at a sphere on Mobius's lab bench.
"Oh, you mean that thing. That's a Honkai Ball. It was an idea from both me and Ruan Mei. After Ruan Mei came to the Honkai world and learned about the effect of my scalpel, she proposed that if I could condense a plant into a life seed, could I also condense an animal into one?"
"And not just a life seed. If the scalpel can make the subject evolve in a fixed direction during surgery, could it also make them temporarily devolve to a micro-state, store their potential points, and use a life-preservation device to collect them? Then, when these subjects are needed for battle, they can be restored..."
"Through our combined efforts, we created the Honkai Ball next to you."
"Right now, a Templar-class Honkai Beast is imprisoned inside the Honkai Ball. It's an initial prototype. But the problem now is how to make the Honkai Beast inside obey our commands..." Mobius said, looking troubled.
"Isn't that simple? I can split off a persona from the Persona Mask, edit it, and implant it into the Honkai Beast's brain to bring it under my control," Vill-V said.
This was another inspiration she had gotten from the Suiyang.
There were countless Suiyang in the Creation Furnace, and one of them could split its body into countless fragments to control other creatures.
Therefore, Vill-V was also thinking that the personas collected by the Persona Mask were just sitting there. Perhaps they could be used to indirectly control living beings.
"Controlling a single Honkai Beast isn't difficult. But we're considering how to mass-produce them."
"Mass-produce?" Vill-V joined the conversation.
"In fact, after our discussions, we've already come up with a relatively perfect plan." Seeing Vill-V's interest, Mobius didn't mind discussing it with her.
"Vill-V, you know that if a technology cannot be widely applied, it is an immature technology. And if I have to perform surgery on every single Honkai Beast with a Curio just to get them into a Honkai Ball, the cost would be too high, and it wouldn't be universal."
"So, Ruan Mei and I plan to solve this problem at its root."
"Oh? At its root?"
"That's right! The Cocoon of Finality!" An unreadable light gleamed in Mobius's eyes.
"If Chen Li can take me to the Cocoon of Finality's location and I perform surgery on it, I'm confident I can make all future Honkai Beasts born from the Honkai develop this universal mechanism. That is, they can shrink themselves to the size of a thumb and store their excess potential points when they receive a fatal blow or are willing to do so."
"When they are needed, they can retrieve their potential points and return to their monstrous size."
"This way, as long as we can mass-produce this item called a Honkai Ball, which is actually a life-support device, we can obtain a large number of living Honkai Beasts."
"And making the Honkai Beasts in these Honkai Balls fight for the user isn't hard to solve either. We just need to increase the Honkai Beasts' affinity for people with Honkai resistance when we operate on the Cocoon of Finality."
"This way, humanity can not only use these new Honkai Beasts to fight against the old ones, but it can also significantly enhance the average strength of humanity, preparing us for our journey into space."
"Honkai Beasts are so strong. It would be such a waste to just eliminate all of them, right?"
"If the humans who venture from Earth into the universe all have the ability to command and carry Honkai Beasts with them, that would be an evolution in the combat power of our entire civilization!"
"After all, not everyone is suited to undergo the super-soldier surgery to become a MANTIS."
Mobius explained her plan to Vill-V, her eyes constantly glancing in Chen Li's direction.
Because the most critical part of this plan was that Mobius only knew of the Cocoon of Finality's existence but couldn't get close to it.
"..." Chen Li listened from the side for a long time without daring to make a sound.
Why did Mobius's plan sound so familiar?
He didn't remember uploading the story of Pokémon to the Curio group chat, did he?
Or did other group members from other worlds also have cartoons or games similar to Poké Balls and Pokémon?
This time, Mobius and Ruan Mei had really cooked up something incredible together.
The key was that, theoretically, it wasn't impossible.
If Mobius didn't have the energy to operate on every single Honkai Beast, why not just operate on the Cocoon of Finality, the "origin" of all Honkai Beasts?
Mobius could even make it so that when the Honkai phenomenon created Honkai Beasts, it made them taste delicious...
"How about we call this the 'Honkai-mon Project'?" Chen Li said slowly, as everyone turned to look at him and the scene fell silent.
"I don't care what it's called. So, you agree to this plan?" Mobius grabbed Chen Li's hand excitedly.
"...I can offer you some suggestions."
"..." Mobius's face instantly stiffened.
She felt as if she had returned to the days when even a demon scientist had to stand up and toast to get research funding.
What Mobius hated most was an amateur giving instructions to a professional.
But then she thought, Chen Li was a member of the Genius Society and a Curio Forger. His mind shouldn't be that rigid, right?
With that in mind, Mobius reluctantly agreed and nodded.
"For example, you could use space-compression technology to create a rest area inside the Poké... the Honkai Ball, to increase the Honkai Beast's comfort and its intimacy with its controller."
"That's acceptable," Mobius nodded.
"Also, for example, you could make capturing Honkai Beasts a popular activity, using entertainment to encourage the public to capture them."
"Possible. But the premise is that the Honkai Beasts won't attack their captors. I was planning to use Honkai energy resistance as the reason for their affinity towards humans, but not everyone has Honkai energy resistance," Mobius said.
Her scalpel wasn't an advanced Curio, so she couldn't just create logic out of thin air.
But having Honkai energy resistance meant having Honkai energy in one's body. Having Honkai energy meant having a connection to the Honkai, which made it much easier for Honkai Beasts to submit or be controlled.
"I'll solve that. I plan to forge a Curio that can produce Stigmata... and then stuff it into the Cocoon of Finality. The Cocoon will be the judge and grant qualifications to humans on Earth who don't have Honkai energy resistance," Chen Li said.
Although the Cocoon of Finality had had a huge negative impact on Earth objectively, it could be trained.
The Cocoon was just a machine. You could tune it to be whatever you wanted, just like the Holy Grail system, which could grant Command Spells to qualified Masters.
"No problem."
"If there are no problems with any of that, then go write a project proposal," Chen Li said.
"A project proposal?"
"That's right. Our Flame-Chasers isn't some small workshop. A formal project naturally needs a proposal. Get me the first draft."
"You, a Curio Forger, need something like a project proposal?"
"I don't, but the people under me do."
"The higher-ups in the Flame-Chasers and the UN are practically worshipping you like their own father. You still need to explain things to them?"
"Ahem, don't worry about it. Just go write the proposal. It's the choice of fate," Chen Li said.
"???"
"The project name is the Honkai-mon Project."
"..."
"Mobius, you need to understand, equilibrium exists in all things. You can't both refuse to write a proposal and ask for funding. Besides, you are fated to have this trial," Chen Li said.
"Fine." Mobius thought that it was just writing a proposal. It probably wouldn't be as troublesome as Chen Li made it out to be.
"Teachable." Seeing Mobius finally compromise, Chen Li nodded.
He was finally going to be the client for once.
And he had finally found a punching bag.
He had to play the part of the demanding client perfectly. He would constantly pick at small details, make Mobius revise the proposal, and when she got to the sixteenth version, he would use her first one!
After being the contractor for so long, it was time for Chen Li to have some fun!
[But the problem is, even when you were the contractor, you were the one who treated those clients with indifference.]
The little sprite retorted.
A Curio Forger might be the contractor, but the demand far exceeded the supply.
If you didn't pay the forging fee, plenty of others were willing to.
"What are you talking about? It's true I had fun as the contractor, but if I can't have even more fun as the client, then what's the point of being the client?"
[...]
"Vill-V, do you want to join our project?" After getting a reply from Chen Li, Mobius turned to look at Vill-V.
"Me? What for?"
"We need to build an assembly line that can mass-produce the life-support devices. And in the entire Flame-Chasers, or rather, the entire Earth, you are the most talented in the field of mechanization," Mobius said.
Ruan Mei was a master in the field of life sciences, that was true. And she could create the life-support device, that was also true. But if they really needed to mass-produce it as planned, Ruan Mei certainly couldn't do it all herself.
And Chen Li's suggestion to add space-compression technology to the Honkai Ball to create something like a capsule room also required other talents to implement.
"Alright," Vill-V nodded.
The idea sounded very interesting.
"If we can use a space-compression device to make the interior of the Honkai Ball vast, then there doesn't seem to be much point in shrinking the Honkai Beasts. In that case... how about we operate on the Cocoon of Finality to make it so that when a Honkai Beast receives a fatal blow or is captured, its potential points are reset and can be reallocated according to the captor's wishes? For example, focusing more on defense, attack, vitality, and so on," Mobius asked Chen Li.
"Anything's possible." Chen Li truly hadn't expected Mobius to be able to do so much with a novice-level Curio.
He originally thought the life seed was the limit, but changing the worldview itself was too unexpected.
Was this the upper limit of a skilled worker?
"When I have time later, I'll help you strengthen this Curio," Chen Li said.
"Not for now. I feel like I haven't fully unearthed the potential of this Curio yet," Mobius shook her head.
"..." Although this Curio could change the worldview because this world had the special existence of the Cocoon of Finality, didn't this make it seem like other novice-level Curios were being wasted in his hands?
Mobius, reel in your divine powers.
But then again, this was a true miracle, wasn't it?
And it also proved another thing: forging a Curio and giving it to others to create more miracles was indeed a wise choice, because there was a limit to what one person was good at...
"In the original timeline that I severed, how the fuck did the higher-ups of the Previous Era manage to play such a good hand so badly?" Chen Li was unwilling to admit that he hadn't used his Curios well, so he started shifting the blame.
"Heaven knows?" Mobius shrugged helplessly.
She knew very well that not all people were the same.
"Let's go. Time to whip those higher-ups," Chen Li suggested.
"Not interested. You should think about what to eat for dinner instead," Mobius shook her head.
She couldn't be bothered with those idiots.
"What to eat for dinner? That is indeed a problem..." Chen Li also fell into deep thought.
Lunch was quite heavy, so...
"Ruan Mei, which Aeon do you think has a relatively light flavor? I'm in the mood for something light today," Chen Li asked Ruan Mei.
"???"
---o---
ps I'm in pain translating this long ahh chapter