Back in his room, Gwen quickly cleared away the tableware. After washing up, he went straight to bed, looking utterly exhausted from the day's training and eager to rest.
However, after slipping beneath the covers, Gwen closed his eyes as though he had immediately fallen asleep. Yet before his eyes, a blue-and-gold interface that only he could see quietly appeared.
Closing his personal status panel, Gwen looked at the empty Chat Group, where he was still the only member, and silently sighed—
A month had passed, yet the Invitation Letter Gwen had bought at great expense still had not received a response. It was basically certain that the purchase had gone down the drain.
Although Gwen had suspected as much when he bought the Invitation Letter, seeing it become reality still left him feeling somewhat melancholy—
That had been a thousand points. Even all the points he had earned from checking in over the past month did not come close.
Thinking of points, Gwen's heart stirred, and he clicked on the mall marked by a treasure chest icon for the first time in a long while.
Over the past month, Gwen had devoted himself almost entirely to studying and training. Aside from checking his improvement in various stats, he only opened the system each day to check in and collect those pitifully few points.
As for the mall, he had not opened it again in the past month—
His experiences from his previous life had taught Gwen that the less money someone had in their bank account, the more enthusiastically they browsed online shopping sites.
To avoid wasting time browsing the mall, Gwen simply chose not to look at it.
He could not afford anything anyway. He might as well sleep early. Maybe he would even grow taller sooner.
With a thought from Gwen, the simple Chat Group interface instantly transformed into a mall page packed with dense rows of white product listings.
Subconsciously checking his point balance, Gwen, whose face was more than half-hidden beneath the blanket, immediately showed a look of surprise—
"Twelve thousand three hundred and twenty-one?"
Seeing that his points once again far exceeded his expectations, even Gwen, who was fairly steady by nature, could not help but feel a surge of delight.
After all, even if ninety-nine percent of the mall's items were trash, the one or two rare treasures among them were still worth spending a huge number of points on, such as the Spirit Awakening Scripture from before.
However, after his surprise passed, Gwen's heart was filled with confusion and incomprehension—
Where exactly had these points come from?
Originally, Gwen had suspected that, like the cheat abilities in webnovels he had read in his previous life, he gained points by influencing the course of the world.
But the inexplicable increase in points now forced Gwen to question that theory—
Although the Honkai world now had Gwen, a transmigrator who had not originally existed, he had not done anything over the past two months that could possibly affect the future.
Even if a butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon rainforest of South America really could cause a tornado in Texas two weeks later, the butterfly still had to flap its wings first.
Gwen did not think he had done much over the past two months. You Lan Dai Er and Rita were still growing according to their original trajectories. Anna might change somewhat, but there were still several years before she became a Herrscher. The tornado belonging to Anna would not appear until then.
After pondering for a long time without finding any answer, Gwen could only temporarily set aside his doubts—
Trapped in Destiny Headquarters, Gwen had to remain cautious at all times. He had no chance to test anything.
Perhaps he would only be able to verify it after leaving Destiny Headquarters in the future.
Gathering his scattered thoughts, Gwen refocused on the mall interface before him.
Beneath the Invitation Letter with its golden background, only a few hours remained on its refresh timer—
It had nearly been a month since the mall's maintenance was completed. Once midnight arrived, the limited-time items in the mall would refresh, and new products would appear.
That left Gwen with a question—
Should he buy the Earth Shadow Stone?
Buy it?
He might not be able to use it.
And even if he could, whether the most overpowered skill, the Meditation Seal, could still be used after leaving its original world remained uncertain.
In Gwen's speculation, the Meditation Seal, a basic skill theoretically possessed by every armor, might not originate from the armor's own power. Instead, it might come from the power of the Heavenly Dao represented by the Emperor Armor, the source of all the armors.
If Gwen's speculation was true, then the Meditation Seal would essentially be sealed away, greatly reducing the value of the Earth Shadow Stone.
Still, that did not mean the Earth Shadow Stone was useless—
Even setting aside the theoretical upper limit of combining all five elements and a bug-level skill like the Meditation Seal, the Earth Tiger Armor alone had considerable value.
Leaving aside everything else, simply carrying the Earth Shadow Stone allowed a qualified person to summon the armor at any time, which alone could provide many conveniences—
As far as Gwen knew, Destiny's Valkyrie armor still had to be carried manually and put on with each other's help before battle. Only once the "spacetime fracture technology" developed from research on the Herrscher of the Void matured and entered use would they be able to close that gap.
Furthermore, the Earth Tiger Armor's ability to operate unhindered in outer space was equally appealing to Gwen.
Moreover, the Earth Tiger Armor had another advantage for Gwen: it would not be controlled by Destiny, or rather, by Otto.
In Gwen's view, even if his future self were equipped with fourth-generation God-Slaying Armor, if he became hostile to Destiny or Otto, there was still a chance they could restrict its use through methods such as locking it with administrative authority—
It was high-tech equipment made by them. It would not be strange for Otto to possess countermeasures.
However, despite all those advantages, one issue still left Gwen hesitant about whether to buy it—
"Can I obtain the so-called Earth Shadow Village bloodline through contact with the Earth Shadow Stone?"
Looking at the stone, which seemed to emit a faint yellow glow, Gwen wavered—
"Or rather...
Can I establish an energy connection with the Earth Shadow Stone, pass the restriction that could be called authorization verification, and successfully use the power within it?"
Now that he still had points to spare, this was the only thing making Gwen hesitate over whether to buy it.
As for whether armor from a tokusatsu series would clash too much with the Honkai world's style?
Have you heard of Valkyrie armor?
Once spacetime fracture technology matured and entered use, Valkyries who summoned their armor before battle would not be much different from tokusatsu protagonists transforming.
Time passed bit by bit. The countdown above the limited-time item grew shorter and shorter, while the stone radiating an earthy yellow glow in the product icon seemed to turn illusory and gradually drift away.
Realizing that if he did not decide now, he might never get another chance, Gwen took a deep breath, slowly exhaled, and finally made his choice...
New Training and New Challenges
As his point balance was instantly cut in half, an item with the icon of a stone emitting a faint earthy yellow glow appeared in Gwen's inventory.
This was the backpack provided by the system mall. It had ten slots in total and could store items purchased from the mall. At the same time, it could also be used to perform certain operations on purchased items.
For example, Gwen had previously used an Impartation Card here by selecting the Spirit Awakening Scripture as its target.
Having ultimately chosen to splurge, Gwen took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, trying to calm himself. He was even more excited than when he had finally gotten the new phone he had bought with two years' worth of savings in his previous life. He chose to summon the stone he had purchased at great expense into reality.
The next moment, following Gwen's will, a heavy stone fell into his palm.
The stone's surface was not smooth. It even felt slightly rough.
Yet although it was merely a stone far lighter than the barbells Gwen used during training, Gwen somehow felt an immense heaviness from it, giving him the illusion that he could not hold it up.
He quickly glanced at it and confirmed that the Earth Shadow Stone was not emitting a blinding light like it had in the story. Only then did he relax and play with this stone from his childhood dreams beneath the blanket.
After fiddling with it for a while and feeling no unusual changes in himself, Gwen waited until his excitement had settled before calming down and attempting to mobilize the Honkai Energy in his body to establish an energy connection with the Light Shadow Stone in his hand.
Through his studies during this period, Gwen had gained a much deeper understanding of Honkai, including Honkai Energy resistance and Honkai Energy adaptability.
In Destiny's textbooks, these were two talents that were somewhat related but not closely connected.
The former determined how much Honkai Energy a person could withstand. The higher one's Honkai Energy resistance, the less likely one was to be eroded by Honkai Energy;
The latter determined how effectively a person could use Honkai Energy. In other words, the higher one's Honkai Energy adaptability, the greater the combat power one could unleash.
Under normal circumstances, people who possessed one of those talents generally possessed the other as well.
However, there was no direct correlation between their respective levels—
There were people with extraordinarily high Honkai Energy resistance but extremely low adaptability, resulting in terrible utilization of Honkai Energy;
Likewise, there were those whose Honkai Energy resistance was not particularly high but who possessed extremely high adaptability, making them formidable fighters.
According to the instructor, the final survivor of the old assault squad had belonged to the latter category.
Gwen was fortunate. With Caslana blood flowing through his veins, he was born with extremely high Honkai Energy resistance.
At the same time, perhaps due to his physique alone, or perhaps because of the boost provided by his exceptionally high spiritual power, Gwen's Honkai Energy adaptability was also quite good.
Therefore, even though he had not yet begun courses specifically teaching the use of Honkai Energy, Gwen could still perform some basic applications, such as the "enchantment" in the virtual training room earlier.
After his training in the virtual training room that afternoon, Gwen had gained an even deeper understanding of how to use Honkai Energy.
Under Gwen's careful control, a thread of Honkai Energy slowly flowed into his palm and was cautiously injected into the Light Shadow Stone.
However, faced with the Honkai Energy Gwen sent over, the Light Shadow Stone was like the earth itself—silent and unresponsive, offering no feedback whatsoever.
Gwen was not disappointed by this—
At least it had not burst into blinding light and blasted him away.
It did not matter if there was no response. Gwen simply treated it as energy training, controlling the Honkai Energy in his body and slowly pouring it into the Light Shadow Stone in his hand—
Without a cultivation method suited to Honkai Energy, Gwen could only try this clumsy method of expending and replenishing it, hoping it might improve his Energy stat.
Half an hour later, Gwen had sent the final thread of Honkai Energy that he could control while calm into the Light Shadow Stone. Yet the Light Shadow Stone, which represented the earth, still showed no reaction, remaining as silent as the ground itself.
Having mentally prepared himself for this, the mentally exhausted Gwen did nothing else. He poked his head out from beneath the blanket and pretended to be sound asleep.
As for the several thousand points he had left, Gwen was in no hurry to buy another Invitation Letter and attempt to invite group members—
Compared with an Invitation Letter that was highly likely to go to waste, Gwen intended to wait and see what items would appear after the refresh before deciding how to spend his remaining points.
Before long, exhausted in both body and mind, Gwen truly fell asleep just as he appeared to have done.
In the stillness of the night, however, a faint earthy yellow glow quietly lit up beneath Gwen's blanket, illuminating the skin pressed tightly against it...
Early the next morning, Gwen, who had already grown accustomed to his current biological clock and naturally woke up every day, was awakened by the noisy alarm for the first time in a while.
He slapped the button on top of the alarm clock, silencing it, then sat up and rubbed his bleary eyes.
But before Gwen could throw off the blanket and get out of bed, he felt the faint chill of a stone against his stomach.
!
His sleepy eyes instantly cleared. Remembering what he had done yesterday, Gwen touched the slightly rough Light Shadow Stone and, with a thought, stored it back in the system space—
Gwen had asked the system yesterday. As long as an item had been purchased from the mall, it could be stored back in the mall backpack as long as there was room, which was very convenient.
After getting out of bed and stretching, Gwen felt inexplicably refreshed. As he washed up, he opened his status panel and took a quick look.
Just as expected, his Energy stat had improved.
But at the same time, to Gwen's surprise, his other stats had also improved to varying degrees.
What was going on?
With his mouth full of foam, Gwen could not help but fill his mind with question marks—
"Could it be that after I fell asleep, the Light Shadow Stone that consumed so much of my Honkai Energy gave me some feedback?
Or did recovering after using up most of my Honkai Energy produce an effect similar to cultivation, which then drove the growth of my physical stats?"
Quietly filing that question away in his mind, Gwen began his new day.
Before morning training, Gwen checked his terminal and discovered that both You Lan Dai Er and Rita had sent him several messages, mostly congratulating him on successfully completing his first virtual training session.
A smile appeared at the corner of Gwen's mouth. He replied to each of them, then asked whether either of them had been injured during their mission.
Although he now had a Light Shadow Stone he could use to train his Energy, Gwen's regular routine did not change much. He still studied theory in the morning and trained in the afternoon, except his training now included combat technique drills and virtual combat, with Energy training added at night.
Perhaps because this body's starting point had been too low, Gwen's stats at level 1 smoothly broke through the 1,000 mark, and every single prefix had become an "S."
However, Gwen did not become complacent because of that. Instead, he worked even harder—
Only by improving his skills as well would Gwen gain the ability to challenge stronger enemies and try to obtain the Great Achievements needed to level up.
Rapid Growth
Clang!
The greatsword collided with the coldly gleaming scythe, producing a crisp clash.
Before you continue