Unfortunately, Chen Luo couldn't afford any of the things above, but he wanted to buy every single one of them.
And the price of the Herrscher of Knowledge Core was only one Primogem higher than a Gnosis. This...
Besides that, Chen Luo deliberately took a few extra looks at Weapon Master and Melee Grandmaster.
Weapon Master said it allowed one to wield all cold weapons freely, but it didn't say anything about mastery.
Melee Grandmaster said it allowed one to freely use all kinds of close-combat techniques, including fists, fingers, palms, and legs.
Was Grandmaster the level above proficiency?
Chen Luo increasingly felt that his Furniture Mastery should be renamed Household Item Mastery.
Clearly, even Grandmaster-level skills didn't grant the user mastery, yet his Furniture Mastery did.
Perhaps that was the boost from the special reward he had received after formally completing his first non-basic commission.
What counted as a basic commission? Things like Snatching the Little Loli's Lollipop or cleaning up for someone else.
Any commission with rewards below 10 Primogems and no bonus special reward counted as a basic commission.
So why did the Herrscher of Knowledge, a Herrscher with magic penetration maxed out, insist on competing with people in hand-to-hand combat?
She was clearly a Herrscher, yet she insisted on competing with others in Taixu Swordplay. She deserved to lose.
"Fu Hua, can you teach me swordsmanship?" Chen Luo suddenly asked.
"Hm? Why are you suddenly interested in that? Of course I can, if you want." After a moment of surprise, the Herrscher of Knowledge answered happily.
"Old Fossil taught a Kiana, so I'll teach you. Then you can go beat Kiana up. Didn't they say I was stronger than Old Fossil?"
"..." Chen Luo suddenly felt that he had entrusted himself to the wrong person.
The World's Strongest Alliance
"Um, I suddenly remembered something. I need to head out for a while." Watching the Herrscher of Knowledge mutter to herself about how she ought to train him, Chen Luo suddenly felt like retreating.
"Hey, how can that work? I just figured out how to train you. How can you run away? The path of martial arts is like rowing upstream—if you don't advance, you fall behind." The Herrscher of Knowledge grabbed Chen Luo's hand.
No matter how strong Chen Luo might become in the future, he would definitely get utterly beaten by the Herrscher of Knowledge right now.
"But I haven't even started practicing martial arts yet, so there's no falling behind." Chen Luo tried to reason with her.
"That actually makes sense... No, wait, how can you think like that? Tomorrow after tomorrow, how many tomorrows are there? If I wait for tomorrow, everything will come to nothing. It's not good to keep putting things off." The Herrscher of Knowledge, who had nearly been talked into it by Chen Luo, rejected his argument again.
"On Saturday mornings, if I don't have anything else to do, I work as a hospital caregiver. Good thing the hypnosis duration you set was two hours instead of three, or I'd have been late. Oh, right, I might not come back at noon. Just make do with something to eat. Last night's late-night snack is still warm. Even if it gets cold in two hours, you can microwave it." Chen Luo lectured the Herrscher of Knowledge like an old father.
"Oh, I see..." Sensing that Chen Luo didn't seem to be lying, the Herrscher of Knowledge released his hand.
She might not want to work as a hospital caregiver herself, but she couldn't stop someone else from doing it.
"I feel like you're the type who'd get taken advantage of while working as a caregiver." The Herrscher of Knowledge rubbed her chin.
"How about I go with you?" the Herrscher of Knowledge suggested.
"Huh? You want to come with me? How?" Chen Luo froze for a moment.
"Please, I'm the Herrscher of Knowledge. Is hiding inside someone else's body difficult? Although I somehow gained a physical body when I crossed worlds, I can still turn back into a feather. The Herrscher of Knowledge is a being that roams the sea of consciousness." The Herrscher of Knowledge spoke proudly.
"You can, and I don't mind you coming with me, but I really don't think you'd be interested in watching me read with someone else for two hours."
"Huh? Reading? Forget it, go by yourself." The Herrscher of Knowledge waved Chen Luo off dismissively.
"..." Not liking to read wasn't a good habit.
"Then I'll be back around two in the afternoon. Stay home and behave." Chen Luo glanced at the clock, which was already nearing ten.
"Wait, it's ten now. Wouldn't two hours mean twelve?" The Herrscher of Knowledge looked at the living room clock.
"Does getting there not take time? Does coming back not take time? And when you get there, are you going to start reading immediately without chatting with anyone?" Chen Luo countered.
"Oh, right... Then you need to come back quickly. I can use this time to think about how to train you." The Herrscher of Knowledge sounded somewhat disappointed.
The Herrscher of Knowledge's expression made Chen Luo feel as though he were looking at a child watching her parents leave for work, reluctant to see them go for the entire day.
"Alright, I'll try to come back early today." Chen Luo couldn't help patting the Herrscher of Knowledge on the head before getting up and heading for the door.
Perhaps because of that Father-Daughter relationship, Chen Luo had begun caring more and more about the Herrscher of Knowledge's physical and mental health.
"Oh, right. Be aware of your current identity. There are plenty of people who play Honkai Impact 3rd, so don't let anyone recognize you. If someone comes to the door, don't open it no matter what they say." Before opening the door and leaving, Chen Luo turned back to remind her.
"Got it." The Herrscher of Knowledge lazily replied, then continued scrolling through Honkai Impact 3rd comics on her phone.
"Come to think of it, did I forget to explain my talent to the Herrscher of Knowledge?" Chen Luo muttered softly as he walked down the street after leaving home.
Then, with the security guard's reminder, Chen Luo found his bicycle, which had been deflated.
"Yun Xia is really something. She not only brought back my backpack, but also brought back my bicycle. More importantly, she even got it fixed."
With his own bicycle, Chen Luo no longer had to squeeze onto buses and subways.
As he rode toward the hospital, Chen Luo thought about how to explain his talent to the Herrscher of Knowledge.
After all, he had promised her yesterday.
Chen Luo wasn't doing this because he had immediately come to trust the Herrscher of Knowledge after becoming family with her. It was because she would clearly be spending a long time around him in the future, and these things would eventually be exposed anyway.
To build trust, there was nothing wrong with telling her about it in advance.
Besides, the Herrscher of Knowledge's secret was far bigger than his. He was from this world, and his talent was merely a little unusual, while the Herrscher of Knowledge came from another world.
If there were two strangers in the world who had formed an alliance, then the Herrscher of Knowledge and Chen Luo were undoubtedly the most solid alliance possible.
Both of them held the other's greatest secret.
Still, he needed to think carefully about how to tell her.
Before long, Chen Luo rode to the vicinity of the hospital.
The hospital wasn't very far from Chen Luo's home to begin with. Besides, he had used his Anemo Vision to speed himself up along the way.
It could only be said that an Anemo Vision really was quite versatile.
Chen Luo was so familiar with this hospital that he couldn't have been more familiar with it. After casually greeting the security guard, he parked his bicycle there.
What place could be safer than right under a security guard's nose?
Of course, Chen Luo didn't forget to toss the man two apples.
He had bought the fruit from a nearby fruit stand, and he was also carrying a bag of oranges.
There were three fruits most welcomed in hospitals: apples, bananas, and oranges.
The first was due to habit, while the latter two were more popular because, in a hospital environment, fruit that could be peeled directly was undoubtedly more convenient.
After skillfully greeting the nurse at the front desk, Chen Luo headed upstairs on his own.
Some hospitals were designed in an incredibly inhumane way. Sometimes, you simply couldn't find the elevator. Generally speaking, even if you had visited several times, you could still get turned around, but Chen Luo was an exception.
Three minutes later, Chen Luo stood before the luxurious private ward on the hospital's top floor and gently knocked on the door.
Chen Luo: I Think I Can Understand the Theory of Relativity
"Come in." A crisp, pleasant voice full of girlish charm sounded from inside.
After pushing open the door, Chen Luo saw a maid in white stockings standing before him.
This young maid didn't look much older than Chen Luo. Her features were exquisite and her figure was outstanding. In particular, the white stockings beneath that absolute territory gave off an impulse that made people want to lick them.
Chen Luo had always felt that the maid's outfit was somewhat improper, but he had no proof.
What respectable maid wore such a short skirt?
If her employer had been a man, Chen Luo would have dared to conclude that he was an old pervert. Unfortunately, the person she served was a woman, whose looks and figure were no worse than the maid's.
"Sister Meng." Chen Luo handed her the oranges.
"I've told you already, just come when you come. Don't keep bringing fruit. Miss can't finish it every time." The maid in white stockings took the fruit while complaining to Chen Luo.
"If she can't finish it, then you can eat it. How can a grown-up be stumped by a bag of oranges?" Chen Luo remained utterly unrepentant as he looked toward the person reclining against the hospital bed.
She had flowing black hair and held a thick book in her hands, reading it attentively. A literary young woman's aura washed over him, though her complexion was somewhat pale, making her look as if she had been ill for a long time.
A frail, black-haired, busty literary girl—those buffs were stacked a little too high.
Especially given how exquisite her appearance was, if this were an anime, she would absolutely be the senior-girl-type female lead.
"Lian'er, how are you feeling? Any better?" Chen Luo asked with concern.
When Chen Luo had first accompanied her in reading two years ago, she had looked sickly like this. Two years later, she still looked sickly like this.
"Much better. Thank you for your concern." The girl named Yun Lian'er raised her head and smiled at Chen Luo.
"Better how? It's been two years, a full two years. You said the same thing two years ago. I think this hospital has been scamming you, or how could they fail to cure you after two whole years? You're still so weak." Clearly, Chen Luo didn't believe her words at all.
The first time Chen Luo had come to the hospital was probably when he had just entered his first year of high school, for a caregiver activity that the school had arranged merely to satisfy the higher-ups.
Now, summer vacation of his second year of high school was approaching, so it had indeed been nearly two years.
Chen Luo knew her family had to be rich. Otherwise, she couldn't afford this luxurious private ward on the top floor, much less stay in it for two years.
And a poor family certainly couldn't have a maid in white stockings.
Of course, Chen Luo's family wasn't poor either. He himself was just poor, so he had never coveted anything about her family circumstances.
"Alright, stop complaining. You complain even more than I do, and I'm the patient." Yun Lian'er still smiled good-naturedly.
Because Yun Lian'er knew that he was only saying those things because he cared about her.
"What book do you want to read this time? One Hundred Years of Solitude?" the girl asked.
"No. I read it once before, but after a few dozen pages, I forgot what happened at the beginning. A classic is still a classic, but I just can't get through it." Chen Luo shook his head.
One Hundred Years of Solitude's literary achievements were beyond question, but not everyone could make it through the book.
Besides, how could anyone finish One Hundred Years of Solitude in two hours?
"Then what do you want to read?" After nodding in agreement with Chen Luo's assessment, the girl asked.
"Then... the Theory of Relativity." Chen Luo lifted his chin confidently.
"...You really are something. Fine, fine. I happen to have that book." Yun Lian'er burst into laughter.
"Sister Meng, go find it on the bookshelf." Yun Lian'er looked at the maid in white stockings.
"Yes, Miss." Sister Meng nodded and walked toward the bookcase that occupied an entire wall of the luxurious private ward.
"I'm curious. Why did you suddenly want to read the Theory of Relativity?" The girl voiced her confusion at just the right moment.
"I heard only geniuses can understand the Theory of Relativity. I think I can do it too," Chen Luo declared.
"I think you'll last five minutes at most. You might even give up before five minutes are up." Yun Lian'er shook her head.
"No, I think I can last at least six minutes," Chen Luo said confidently.
Three minutes later...
"Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?" Chen Luo stared blankly at the preface on the first page of the Theory of Relativity.
The facts proved that Chen Luo couldn't even hold out for three minutes.
After glancing at the dazed Chen Luo, the girl who was seriously reading smiled and continued with her book.
The only reason Chen Luo could keep staring blankly at the book was because of the commission.
Ding! You have a new commission.
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