Snake, You're Not Pure at All!

G-Got it!

Host: Xu Ziling

Active Skills: None

Passive Skills: Workplace Speech and Conduct, Genius Acting at Slacking Off, Social Skills of a Corporate Slave, Sometimes Sane, Sometimes Insane (struck out) Randomly Going Insane... and so on.

Trailblaze Mission: Not yet updated

Daily Mission: Maintain physical contact with any Valkyrie/Flame-Chaser for more than three minutes (Completed)

Mission Rewards: Realgar Wine *1, Stellaron Shards *150 (Distributed)

Note: As this is the host's first transmigration into the Honkai world, the host has a seven-day newbie protection period. During this time, the host can boldly explore the Honkai world without worry. The host is also advised to accumulate as many shiny rocks as possible during this period, so that the host can strengthen himself once the System Shop opens.

Xu Ziling took a look. It was just an ordinary cultivation system, though it suited him perfectly.

After looking over everything, Xu Ziling's doubts not only failed to lessen but grew even stronger. This panel displaying his personal data contained no information about his current body, so he asked the system in his mind:

System, I asked you to open the panel so you could clear up my doubts, not add to them.

[Huh? But... what exactly did you want to ask? You didn't seem to say.]

Huh? Didn't I?

[...You really didn't.]

"..."

Ahem. I just wanted to ask whether you knew what was going on with my current body. Why did it have a bishop's face? If the extreme hunger I felt when I first awoke inside this body was because you had consumed the fat in my body... then why had it been sealed inside a stone statue? Why had it been sleeping underground?

[That is of course because... um, sorry, Host, but that question concerns one of your future Trailblaze Missions, so I can't tell you... Please forgive me.]

Oh, come on...

Xu Ziling was immediately left speechless. He then sighed helplessly. It seemed that his so-called Star Rail Cultivation System could not even function as a basic encyclopedia. It was also rather stupid. It seemed destined to be a system with little presence.

He could only wait until the System Shop it had mentioned opened and see what happened then.

At that moment, Xu Ziling remembered something else. After glancing at his reflection in the bathroom mirror, he casually said to the system,

All right, System. Since this is your first time on the job, I won't blame you for not even being able to serve as an encyclopedia. But could you check when you'll be giving me my newbie gift pack?

[Newbie gift pack... Um, do I still have to give you that?]

Hearing the hesitation in the system's voice, Xu Ziling answered bluntly:

Of course you do!

[Well... all right. Please wait a moment. I need some time to prepare it for you.]

Mm...

Xu Ziling nodded in satisfaction. Although his system was not very smart, he did not actually like those rigid systems that strictly dictated every word and action. This foolish newbie system suited his tastes perfectly.

While the system prepared the gift pack, Xu Ziling looked toward the bathroom door. If he went outside and turned the corner, he would be able to see Mobius directly.

But since he had finally found some free time, there were a few things Xu Ziling needed to sort out.

For example... why was Serpent treating him so well?

Because Xu Ziling had transmigrated here knowing the game's plot, his favorability toward Serpent was naturally maxed out.

But the local Serpent had no reason to have maxed favorability toward this "stranger" of hers. Yet even when Xu Ziling had unconsciously kissed her forcefully, she had acted as if she did not care in the slightest.

Perhaps Serpent's indifference toward humanity played some part in it, but that clearly could not explain everything.

There was only one explanation...

She coveted his body and wanted to use it for experiments.

That made sense. After all, for a biological genius like her, seeing a living person leap out of an "Ancient Stone Statue" and then "devour" more than a hundred buckets of instant noodles would inevitably make her want to study him.

Then he would set himself a small goal for his new life: first, build a good relationship with Mobius. At the very least, he could not let her keep looking at him like a Little Mouse.

That would not be too difficult. Compared with Little Serpent, Big Serpent was easy to talk to, especially since she was already interested in him.

On the other side, the system did not make Xu Ziling wait long. About two minutes later, he sensed three purple light screens rising in his mind—

Choose one of three newbie curios. Host, please choose one of the following three curios as your starting curio.

Curio 1: Exotic Wood Fruit: After consuming this curio, the consumer will be immune to one fatal injury and immediately recover to peak condition. After the effect is triggered once, the curio will be destroyed.

Curio 2: Galactic Lottery: After the user tears open this lottery ticket, if it returns to its original state within three seconds, the user will randomly obtain a beneficial curio. If nothing happens, then nothing happens. If the lottery ticket explodes immediately after being torn open, the lottery's backlash mechanism will activate, forcing the user into a near-death state.

Curio 3: Star-Shattering Lure: While carrying this curio, the "Speed" attribute increases by 30% (including but not limited to movement speed, attack speed, and reaction speed).

After scanning the three curios from the Honkai universe, Xu Ziling chose the second one without hesitation: the Galactic Lottery.

Of course, this was not because he could not afford the rebirth offered by the Exotic Wood Fruit, nor because the Star-Shattering Lure's speed boost had better cost-effectiveness... It was simply because the famous American five-star general MacArthur had once said that there were only two kinds of people in the world: those addicted to playing the lottery, and those who had not played the lottery yet.

Unfortunately, Xu Ziling belonged to the former group.

The instant Xu Ziling finished making his choice, the purple light screen in his vision solidified into a pink-and-blue lottery ticket in his hand.

Unlike the lottery in the game, the usage condition had changed from destroying a destructible object to simply tearing open the lottery ticket.

That made sense. Without the restrictions of a game framework, the range of "destructible objects" was far too broad and impossible to judge. One mistake and the result could be disastrous.

Compared with that, simply tearing it open was much clearer.

However...

Xu Ziling looked at the words "after the user tears open this lottery ticket" written on the back of the ticket and fell into thought.

In other words... the person who tore open the lottery ticket did not necessarily have to be him?

[Correct, Host.]

The system promptly appeared and explained to Xu Ziling:

[No matter who uses it, once the lottery's backlash rule is triggered, that person will be reduced to a near-death state by the lottery's backlash.]

[However, when someone else tears open the lottery, the curio ultimately obtained cannot be judged to belong to the host while that user remains alive. Therefore, the system advises the host: nine out of ten bets lose, nine out of ten bets are scams, and not betting is the true victory.]

So that's how it is...

Xu Ziling pondered this after hearing it.

He did not consider himself a righteous gentleman, but he was not vicious enough to become the scum of humanity either. He was not about to pave his own path with someone else's life.

But...

If... and this was only hypothetical—

If, in the distant future, Xu Ziling had to face a Herrscher's attack and found himself with nowhere left to run, could he throw the lottery ticket out and let the Herrscher's attack brush against it, gambling on the possibility that the other party would trigger the lottery's instant-kill threshold?

The moment this thought appeared, it transformed into a seed and burrowed deep into Xu Ziling's heart.

And the more Xu Ziling thought about it, the more feasible the method seemed!

After all, once the lottery triggered its curio-acquisition check, the lottery ticket itself would not be destroyed! During the Previous Civilization, Herrscher attacks were generally area-of-effect attacks with immense duration and destructive power. When the time came, he could simply toss the lottery ticket into the opponent's attack zone...

Even if the Herrscher had heaven-defying luck and managed to activate the lottery nine times in a row, gaining a pile of curio enhancements, the lottery ticket would not be damaged before its instant-kill threshold was triggered. No matter how absurd the Herrscher's luck was, the instant-kill threshold would eventually activate, and the Herrscher would fall beneath the lottery's might!

Nine out of ten bets lose, and nine out of ten bets are scams. That saying was not groundless!

Where in reality was there any sort of domain expansion? If one kept using the Galactic Lottery, the final result would always be one word: "explosion"!

...But if the lottery exploded on someone else instead of him, wouldn't that be interesting?!!

At that thought, the corners of Xu Ziling's mouth rose wildly. He had originally been worried about how he would develop after transmigrating so that he could lead the Previous Civilization to victory over the Finality. Now that he had this lottery ticket in hand, when the Finality battle came, he would slap it onto that old Honkai woman's face and reduce her Honkai energy by 99% first!

"Knock, knock, knock."

Just as Xu Ziling was imagining their wonderful future, a knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.

"Little Mouse... are you done yet?"

Outside the bathroom, Mobius knocked on the door and said,

"If you're going to be in there for a long time, I prepared a few things for you. They should help. I left them by the door, so come out and take them yourself."

After saying that, Mobius left directly and returned to the instruments in the research institute, where she began examining a drop of saliva whose owner was unknown.

A gift from Serpent?

After thinking for a moment, Xu Ziling put the Galactic Lottery back into his pocket and prepared to see what surprise Serpent had prepared for him.

Xu Ziling opened the bathroom door and saw three things placed outside.

A graduated cylinder, a cellphone, and... a website!

"...?"

Xu Ziling slowly tapped out a question mark. Almost on instinct, he picked up the cellphone and entered the website.

"F*! Serpent, you're not pure at all!"