Original God, But Chat Group

Then he handed the bank card to Kasumigaoka Utaha.

"Thanks!"

Li Yue-kun waved his phone at the clerk, then turned and walked out of the store, with Kasumigaoka following behind him.

Even though there'd be no internet in the Teyvat continent, that didn't stop him from wanting a phone—after all, besides calling and browsing, a phone could take photos and videos. For Li Yue-kun, who had no Vision to store things, a phone was way more useful than a Kamera, especially since he didn't have to pay for it himself.

"Senpai, let's head to Akihabara next."

"Akihabara?"

Kasumigaoka looked at Li Yue-kun.

"Right, Li Yue-kun, you're from over there."

"What's that got to do with being from over there?"

"Isn't it said that people from over there always go to Akihabara to check out maid cafés?"

Kasumigaoka said it as if it were obvious.

"That's just some people, and it's not trendy to go to maid cafés anymore. Besides, people from over there also come here to spend money filming stuff—does that mean I'm going to film something too?"

"Li Yue-kun, that remark just now was pretty perverted."

Kasumigaoka looked at him with disgust, clearly understanding what "filming something" meant.

"So what do you want to do in Akihabara?"

"I'm going to Akihabara to buy a Solar Panel."

"A Solar Panel?"

Kasumigaoka looked at him in confusion.

"What are you buying that for?"

"To generate electricity, of course!"

Li Yue-kun held up his phone with a look like she was an idiot.

"My dear senpai, you should know what kind of place the Teyvat continent I live in is, right? There's no generator there. If I take this phone back and want to keep using it, I need somewhere to charge it."

Charging a phone had strict requirements. Since Li Yue-kun bought the phone, he naturally had to think about how to charge it. Teyvat had the Electro element, but he had no idea what voltage it was, whether it was DC or AC. A phone's lithium battery—wrong voltage and it'd blow up on the spot! Squeeze it too hard and it'd blow up on the spot! Overheat it and it'd blow up on the spot too! In short, all kinds of explosions!

As for why he chose a Solar Panel instead of a diesel generator—he didn't know if Teyvat had diesel, but Liyue Harbor was always sunny. Teyvat had its own laws of physics.jpg

"Or should I just come to your room to charge my phone every time it runs out of battery? Of course, if you're fine with it, I'm fine with it too."

He grinned, waiting for Kasumigaoka's answer.

"Tch, then just buy the Solar Panel."

Akihabara was widely known for its many anime-related shops—maid cafés, game stores, light novel and manga shops—but originally, it was an electronics commercial district in Tokyo, where you could buy every household appliance imaginable, like the Solar Panel Li Yue-kun wanted now.

Kasumigaoka took Li Yue-kun and the others to Akihabara's Electric Town, where they bought a Solar Panel and a Battery.

But Li Yue-kun didn't stop there. Since he'd already bought the panel and battery, he might as well get some more appliances. So after purchasing a batch of Solar Panels, he added a Refrigerator, a Washing Machine, an Air Conditioner, and an Electric Massage Sofa to improve his life—Teyvat didn't have any of these things. He had everything delivered to Kasumigaoka's apartment.

Watching the growing stack of receipts in her hand, Kasumigaoka's face darkened. She'd said she'd treat him as a local, but she hadn't meant like this.

In contrast to Kasumigaoka's grim expression, Li Yue-kun was utterly delighted.

"I get how Zhongli feels now. Spending someone else's money really is this satisfying."

35. Can I? Can I? Can I?

"What interesting things. They're not big, yet they can do so many functions, and all they need is a bit of gentle Electro element to work."

Having finished shopping with Li Yue-kun and stepping out of the Department Store, Venti couldn't help but marvel.

"And humans even have a way to extract gentle Electro element directly from nature, even from the sun. It's like..."

In Teyvat, extracting Elemental Power from nature wasn't impossible, but it usually required the corresponding elemental attribute. Yet this Solar Panel in front of them extracted Electro element straight from sunlight, reminding Venti of that certain element.

"After all, this world doesn't have usable Elemental Power. Humans are ordinary and weak, so they have to keep advancing in technology."

"True. Without Elemental Power as an extraordinary means to boost individual strength, the only way is to use technology to enhance collective strength. Teyvat is actually on that path too, just moving much slower than this world."

"But these things aren't entirely suitable for Teyvat. Teyvat has Elemental Power and its own path."

Though he found it fascinating, Venti had no intention of transplanting modern society's stuff wholesale into Mondstadt. Teyvat had its own technology—Elemental Power tech wasn't absent, after all. Teyvat had its own laws of physics.jpg

"Yes, Teyvat has its own path, but I'm still curious about how these machines work."

As for Nahida, she had no plans to bring these things back to Sumeru either. Rather than moving them, she wanted to understand the knowledge embedded in these household appliances. The physics principles inside them were what she sought.

The God of Wisdom of Teyvat—more like a God of Big Data—possessed all kinds of data and knowledge. Knowledge and wisdom were two different things: knowledge meant information and data volume, while wisdom was the ability to apply that knowledge.

No matter how much knowledge one had, if it couldn't be used, it was just a database, not wisdom. Clearly, whether it was Greater Lord Rukkhadevata or Nahida, neither was a true God of Wisdom—they were just rigid server data managers.

Still, Li Yue-kun could support Nahida's desire to learn the operating principles of these modern products.

"Nahida, you want to learn how they work?"

Li Yue-kun looked down at Nahida.

"Yes. This is knowledge I've never seen before. I'm curious."

Nahida blinked her big, adorable eyes as she made her request to Li Yue.

"Li Yue, can you help me obtain that knowledge?"

"I can't really help you with that, because I don't have any money."

"Knowledge can be bought with money?"

Nahida's mouth fell open in surprise.

"That's right. So if you want to learn, you'll need the currency of this world."

Li Yue pointed at Kasumigaoka, who had followed the three of them out.

"But the money I use to buy stuff all comes from Shiyu-senpai."

Following Li Yue's gesture, Nahida turned her gaze to Kasumigaoka.

Clutching a stack of receipts and just emerging from the mall, Kasumigaoka had barely managed to recover her composure when she heard Li Yue telling Nahida to ask her for money. Her face darkened again.

Seriously? You fleece me yourself, and now you want your daughter to do the same? And you're actually treating this god you picked up as your own kid?

"Miss Kasumigaoka."

But as she looked down at Nahida, who was gazing up at her with those big, beautiful eyes full of pleading, Kasumigaoka's expression softened.

The one being a pain was Li Yue, not this adorable Nahida. She couldn't blame the little one.

After all, she was just a pure child, only five hundred years old, yearning for knowledge.

"It's fine."

Kasumigaoka smiled, looking down at the cute five-hundred-year-old.

"If it's just books, I can easily help out."

"But there's quite a lot of knowledge I can buy here, and it covers a wide range. If you want me to buy everything learnable at once, even ten of me couldn't afford it. So I suggest you pick a field first. I can help you get some basic materials in that area—everything has to start from the fundamentals."

"That makes sense."

Nahida nodded in agreement. As the God of Wisdom, even if she wasn't exceptionally clever, she understood the basics.

"Hmm... as for what to study..."

After Kasumigaoka's question, Nahida tapped her little chin with her finger and began to think. After all, she didn't know this other world.

Seeing Nahida's troubled expression, Li Yue offered his suggestion.

"Physics. Physics touches on the most fundamental rules of a world, and every world has its own physical laws."

"Since Li Yue thinks I should start with physics, I'll follow Li Yue's advice."

Nahida, still lacking strong opinions of her own, chose to go along with Li Yue's suggestion. He then took the lead and placed the order with Kasumigaoka.

"Get her a set of basic physics textbooks from middle school—junior high and high school levels. They shouldn't be too expensive, and they'll keep her busy for a while."

"Li Yue-kun, while I don't think your choice is wrong... there's one thing I've been meaning to ask."

Kasumigaoka frowned slightly.

"You can read Japanese because of your personal circumstances, but can she?"

Through the Chat Group, Li Yue's livestreams had shown plenty of Teyvat's script. Kasumigaoka couldn't understand a word of it back then. Even Aizen, without corresponding references during the stream, couldn't make sense of it either. That meant Teyvat and her world didn't share a writing system. And now she was supposed to buy Japanese textbooks for the girl to study? Seriously?

"As crazy as it sounds, I can confirm that ever since we arrived in this world, all three of us can read Japanese and understand it when spoken. It's like how I'm speaking Chinese right now, but you can understand me. You were just having a normal conversation with Nahida, weren't you?"

Li Yue's words made Kasumigaoka pause.

Right. I've been talking with these three otherworlders for a while now, and there's never been a language barrier. Li Yue said in the group chat that he speaks Chinese, and the locals in Teyvat speak the common tongue, but both she and Aizen could understand everything.

But the sharp-minded Kasumigaoka still spotted a flaw.

"Wait, if that's the case, I should be able to read Teyvat's script too. But why can you all read Japanese, while I can't read Teyvat's writing?"

"Good question. I'd like to know too. Because even though I can talk to Teyvat people, I can't read their script either."

Li Yue spread his hands, looking utterly innocent.

"You can't read it either?"

"Nope, I can't."

What kind of weird bug was this?

"Forget it. I don't understand what's going on here. Anyway, I'll just follow your suggestion and buy the middle school physics textbooks. The rest is up to the kid herself."

Seeing that Kasumigaoka was willing to buy books for Nahida, Venti, who had been listening nearby, lit up and shamelessly sidled over.

"Since Nahida's getting a gift, Miss Kasumigaoka, could you prepare something for me too? Of course, I'll repay you with the finest bardic songs Teyvat has to offer!"

"Uh..."

Kasumigaoka wanted to say she wasn't particularly interested in his singing, but Venti didn't give her a chance to refuse. He leaned in, eyes wide, and started playing cute.

"Pretty please~? Pretty please~~? Pretty please~~?"

"Fine... what do you want?"

Unable to resist, Kasumigaoka reluctantly agreed.

"I'd like to taste this world's signature drinks—nothing too much, just enough for a good round!"

And so, Venti also received his welcome gift from Kasumigaoka.

After spending a hefty sum on appliances for Li Yue, Kasumigaoka's wallet took another modest hit. She felt like she'd turned into an ATM.

Thankfully, the royalties from her previous books were substantial enough; otherwise, she'd be struggling to cover her living expenses until the next payout.

Though they'd bought quite a bit, the appliances would take a few days to arrive. So, Li Yue simply told Venti and Nahida to have fun in the Saekano world first, while he himself opened another Portal and stepped into the world of Bleach.

36. Yifu! Yue has finally found you!

Seireitei, the Gotei 13 garrison. Fifth Division Captain Aizen Sousuke, as usual, finished his calligraphy practice in his office, then picked up his Zanpakuto and stepped out. Fifth Division Vice-Captain Momo Hinamori, as always, was peacefully asleep in the next room. That girl was a chronic dozer—every time Aizen practiced calligraphy at night, she'd insist on keeping him company as Vice-Captain, only to nod off soon after.

And that was exactly what Aizen needed. Only after Momo fell asleep would he begin his true activities.

Leaving the Fifth Division barracks, Aizen walked quietly along Seireitei's roads. The patrolling Shinigami he passed all completely ignored his presence, because every last one of them was under Kyōka Suigetsu's control. In all of Seireitei, aside from the blind man in the Ninth Division, everyone—even Captain-Commander Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryūsai—was under Kyōka Suigetsu's sway.

After leaving the Fifth Division barracks, Aizen headed straight for the Third Division. Its captain, Gin Ichimaru, was one of only two subordinates Aizen had in Seireitei—the other being that blind man in the Ninth Division who sought to overthrow the nobles for justice. Though Gin wasn't truly loyal to Aizen, aiming instead to reclaim the soul of his childhood friend Rangiku Matsumoto that Aizen had stolen, that didn't change the fact that he was currently working for Aizen.

"Good evening, Captain Aizen."

Gin tucked his hands into his wide sleeves like an old man afraid of the cold, squinting with a grin as he stared at Aizen.

"Good evening, Gin."

Aizen replied with a gentle smile.

"Have you finished arranging things in your division?"

"Yeah, all set."

"Then let's set out."

Originally, Aizen had conducted his Hollowfication research and experiments within Seireitei, but he'd since moved them outside. Thanks to the memory files Li Yue had given him, he now knew that a group of Quincy had founded the Wandenreich hidden in Seireitei's shadows. Though Aizen had no respect for Yhwach or those Quincy who could be dealt with by a single Kyōka Suigetsu, he didn't want to be watched from the shadows. So he relocated his lab outside Seireitei.

The two slipped out of Seireitei without a sound. The Shinigami guarding the gate, just like those on the roads earlier, acted as if they hadn't seen them at all. Such was the power of Kyōka Suigetsu.

Soul Society was a gathering place for human souls. After arriving, most souls lost contact with their former families, never to meet again. Because so many died at nearly the same time, even those who left the Human World at the same time and place were often separated. However, souls could choose to gather and form new families, living together. They might come from different times and historical backgrounds in the Human World, but they could all communicate, interact, and grow close—even marry. Many child souls born here would even enter Seireitei to become Shinigami.