"It was only because I'd been working out that I could carry you and run!"
If he hadn't been reading these past few days, the old him definitely wouldn't have been able to pick Guinaifen up and sprint at full speed.
Come to think of it, this was also Liu Bai's first time carrying someone of the opposite sex.
How did that saying go again?
Fragrant and soft...
"Sigh... My first time is gone just like that."
"Do you really need to lament that too? I haven't even lamented it—and the corners of your mouth are curling up!"
For some reason, Guinaifen immediately understood what Liu Bai was lamenting.
"They're here! Threads!"
"Say, aren't you two arguing a little too much?"
Ten minutes later, Natasha had fed a little medicine to every Dormant Spirit Deathless present.
"Hah... It's all because Boss Liu's thoughts keep wandering off."
Guinaifen complained while patting Liu Bai's back to help him catch his breath.
"But Boss Liu, you really did look cool just now."
He would have looked even cooler if he'd kept his mouth shut.
Guinaifen Favorability: 4044
"Hah... I feel like I just ran my entire life's worth of exercise..."
Liu Bai was genuinely out of breath.
"I can tell. You've clearly never exercised before." Natasha could tell at a glance that Liu Bai still had stamina left, but he simply didn't know how to breathe.
More bluntly put, he had gotten a stitch.
Making such a rookie mistake really did make him seem like a pampered rich boss.
"Nonsense. Before this, the most exercise I'd ever gotten in my life was a thousand-meter run back in school."
Liu Bai snapped back unhappily.
Who the hell knew he would ever end up like this?
"When we get the chance, I'll train you properly, kid."
Natasha smiled at Liu Bai as he bent over and gasped for air, then looked toward the neatly lined-up Dormant Spirit Deathless.
Honkai Favorability: -99 -97
Just like last time, after feeding them medicine, Honkai's favorability was also increasing besides that of the Deathless who had taken the medicine.
The increase was just strangely random.
"So how should we deal with them? There are forty-one in total."
"Strip their clothes, then kill them—right, how much medicine did you use?"
"Eight bottles."
Natasha was all about thriftiness. If she could use less, she absolutely would not use more.
"It's less than I imagined..." After Liu Bai had caught his breath a little, he gave the Dormant Spirit Deathless the order to take off their clothes.
Dormant Spirit Deathless were relatively intelligent compared with ordinary Deathless. They quickly understood Liu Bai's meaning and began removing their clothes.
"...Kid, you're quite the pervert."
Deadless Organs Cannot Be Used
Dormant Spirit Deathless Summoning Ticket (Single-Use Item) *20 Nether Spirit Deathless Summoning Ticket (Single-Use Item) *20 Annihilation Dormant Spirit Summoning Ticket (Single-Use Item) *1
"...Why is there nothing else?"
Liu Bai stared blankly at the dropped items listed in the system prompt.
What the hell was the point of giving him only summoning tickets in a materials dungeon?
"?" Natasha gave Liu Bai a strange look when she heard that. "You already stripped them naked. What else do you want? Let me make this clear beforehand: humans can't use Deathless organs, and there's no technology for harvesting them either."
Liu Bai's mouth twitched at that... What kind of bizarre misunderstanding was this?
Wait... Did stripping off their clothes mean they couldn't drop materials normally?
Because they weren't carrying anything anymore... No, did it have to be this realistic?
Still, summoning tickets... It wasn't exactly a loss.
Dormant Spirit Deathless and Nether Spirit Deathless were support mages with 2 Strength, 4 Constitution, and 1 Agility.
Dormant Spirit Deathless leaned toward buffs, while Nether Spirit Deathless leaned toward debuffs.
Annihilation Dormant Spirits, meanwhile, were all-rounder mages with 3 Strength, 6 Constitution, and 1 Agility.
Come to think of it... Could monsters summoned by tickets be stripped again?
Liu Bai used a Dormant Spirit Deathless summoning ticket, and a pair of long pale legs floating in the air instantly appeared beside him.
"Don't panic." Liu Bai stopped Natasha and Guinaifen, who were preparing to attack.
"I summoned her. I'm running an experiment."
Liu Bai once again gestured for the Dormant Spirit Deathless to take off her clothes.
"...The more I look at this kid, the more of a pervert he seems." Natasha truly could not help complaining.
"Can't deny that."
Although she had witnessed her boss's cool side this time, the scene of him ordering someone to undress was really impossible to see as cool.
Or rather, his glorious image had been completely ruined.
"It won't work."
Liu Bai took the clothes, glanced at them, and had the Dormant Spirit Deathless put them back on.
The summoned clothes had the word "Temporary" before their names, along with a countdown. One look was enough to tell they couldn't actually be used—unless he planned to scam someone.
"Give me some milk, but go easy."
Since he had already summoned her, Liu Bai decided to test something else.
—Then the floating long-legged girl tilted her head in confusion, before supporting her chest and descending until she was level with Liu Bai.
"Pervert."
"What a pervert."
"Hey! What the hell does that have to do with me?!"
Liu Bai angrily rebuked the two people making snide remarks behind him, while also realizing his own mistake.
"Ahem, not milk. Healing. Give me a light heal."
This time, the long-legged girl did not hesitate. A golden magic circle appeared on the ground around her.
Liu Bai saw a new buff appear on his status panel.
Dark Energy Prayer: While the Dormant Spirit Deathless channels, allied characters within the magic circle recover HP equal to 1% of the Dormant Spirit Deathless's health per second. This skill can stack.
What a good skill.
Liu Bai's eyes lit up. There was none of the incompatibility he had imagined would result from Honkai energy.
After confirming that, Liu Bai gestured for the Dormant Spirit Deathless to deactivate the skill.
The only downside of this skill was its poor scaling. After all, 1% of a Dormant Spirit Deathless's health was hardly enough in high-level battles.
But fortunately, it could stack.
As for the fact that the Dormant Spirit Deathless could not move while channeling, that was a minor issue that could be made up for with manual control.
After all, as mages, the Dormant Spirit line possessed an excellent life-saving skill called Phasing.
"Liu Bai, thanks."
After the testing was over, Natasha suddenly said that to Liu Bai.
"?" Liu Bai looked utterly baffled.
Natasha now genuinely felt that Liu Bai's mercy was the reason she had managed to preserve her chastity.
"I somehow feel insulted." Liu Bai was very displeased.
But...
Forget it.
After all, Natasha was the backbone of this operation.
Without Natasha, Liu Bai really would not have dared to enter the Dormant Spirit Deathless dungeon.
"You said the lab rat told you to sell these?" Mobius looked at Natasha with suspicion.
"Yes. You can look at the message Liu Bai sent."
"Fine, let me see... Things from the Dormant Spirit Deathless line, huh? Do we have a branch of those in our Sky Dome Zone?"
Natasha did not say anything—she did not know how Liu Bai had summoned so many Dormant Spirit Deathless either.
Yes, summoned.
Although Natasha knew nothing, Liu Bai had made a grasping motion before the Dormant Spirit Deathless appeared. Looking back on it now, that had probably been a summoning gesture.
But there had to be some kind of limitation. Otherwise, being able to summon a group of Deathless anytime and anywhere would be far too terrifying.
...Considering how Liu Bai had taken them running all over the place today, perhaps it was more like "releasing things that already existed"?
The guess was so absurd that Natasha could not help shaking her head.
Meanwhile, Mobius had clearly only asked casually and had no intention of digging deeper.
"Ten million... Tch, isn't that kid making money a little too fast?"
Mobius felt a little unhappy.
"..."
Natasha also fell silent.
Why had I never made this much money before?!
Well, it was impossible to completely strip so many sets of clothes before.
For materials like these, intact ones were worth two grades more than damaged ones.
And when capturing Deathless alive, the ones caught in large numbers were all low-level fodder. They also needed the organization's help. Besides, with a normal carrying capacity, Natasha could at most tuck one Deathless under each arm—and that was already the ideal scenario. Any more, and she would not be able to bring them back.
Moreover, their resistance during capture would damage the integrity of the materials.
Running into a group of minor elites like Liu Bai had, then stripping every single one of them completely intact, was simply not normal.
"Forget it. It's a good thing that the lab rat is capable. I'll take the items. I'll transfer the money over in a bit. Tell him this is enough for my research, and to bring me something new next time."
Mobius's straightforwardness far exceeded Natasha's expectations. She did not even ask how Liu Bai had done it.
Was World Serpent... really her home?
"...By the way, has Jackal woken up?"
After sighing, Natasha asked about Jackal.
"She has. She looks like a gloomy artsy young woman right now."
Mobius curled her lips.
Before you continue