Miraculous Forger of the Collapse Chapter 27

Tonghua wanted to expand her authority because her world and Chen Li's world existed under the same Worldview.

It was similar to the relationship between Honkai Impact 3rd and Genshin Impact.

Yet Chen Li had never heard from his parents that his world had come into contact with a world extremely similar to anime. Therefore, it could be guessed that the two worlds did not exist under the same Worldview.

However, Houraisan Kaguya's situation made Chen Li hesitate to be completely certain of that.

But perhaps Houraisan Kaguya was a "crossover" character.

"If only this personal panel could work in other worlds... Hmm, wait." Chen Li halted and turned to Jingliu beside him, suddenly struck by a bold idea.

"Master Jingliu, what do you think about me forging you into a miraculous artifact?"

"You want to betray your master and ancestors?"

Jingliu, whose Mara-Struck state had been completely suppressed, seemed to have undergone a slight change in personality.

"Ahem, I mean fixing this projection of yours and the personal panel into a miraculous artifact, then giving it to your true body."

"Then why not simply create a miraculous artifact that allows other people to generate personal panels? Forging artifacts from people is a wicked path," Jingliu casually retorted.

"Ah, Master Jingliu, you're a genius. I need to write that down." Chen Li summoned the Miraculous Forging Guide and recorded something in its memo section.

Jingliu could not help but glance sideways at him.

Jingliu suddenly worried that this cheap disciple of hers might one day become a mad artificer.

A single dangerous idea from the craftsman Yingxing and the High Elder Dan Feng had been enough to cause such tremendous harm to the Xianzhou. If Chen Li, a Miraculous Forger, went mad...

"Chen Li, I hope you do not embark on the path of Destroy the world," Jingliu said.

"Don't worry. My predecessors have already made this mistake over a hundred times. The facts have proven that path doesn't work, so I definitely won't make the same mistake again," Chen Li said.

"Ah, Master Jingliu, you leveled up." Just as he finished speaking, Chen Li saw the Miraculous Forging Guide tremble and send him a notification.

Teaching Experience +1

"I suppose... I did."

"Do you Cloud Knight Sword Champions usually teach your subordinates as well?" Chen Li asked curiously.

"Occasionally. It is one of a Cloud Knight Sword Champion's duties. But is leveling up in this world really so easy?"

"Only going from level 0 to level 1 is easy. It only requires 0.01 experience points. It's practically the kind of thing you can achieve just by doing anything. Going from lv1 to lv2 requires 100 experience points, lv2 to lv3 requires 200, lv3 to lv4 requires 300... and so on," Chen Li explained.

In this world, experience was relatively difficult to obtain.

Moreover, since there were no shortcuts to gaining experience, the gap in required experience between each level did not rise exponentially.

Chen Li's Transmigrator level was 0 because he had never truly transmigrated before.

"I see. Then can traits be acquired just by reaching level 1? Such as this Earnest Counsel trait." Jingliu continued asking.

"You've already generated a trait? But it's only an ordinary trait. You can select it for now and replace it later if you get a better one. But keep in mind that unless there are special circumstances, you can only choose one trait every ten levels. When you reach level 11, the personal panel will remind you to confirm your first-stage final trait," Chen Li said.

Every ten levels counted as one stage. That was simply the shorthand people used.

From Tonghua's experience, Chen Li could tell that when experts leveled new characters, although they received no discount on leveling up, they generated traits exceptionally quickly. This was completely different from the natives, who generally only generated traits after level 8.

But that only applied to the first trait.

For example, Tonghua had generated the "Deception" trait within ten minutes of arriving in this world.

Tonghua had told Chen Li about this afterward.

And who had she intended to deceive?

Naturally, Chen Li himself.

But she had failed.

At the time, Tonghua had wondered, Why was this little brat so difficult to deal with?

If this world wanted those powerhouses to integrate into its Worldview, it naturally had to offer them a little sweetness first.

"Understood. But... your world doesn't seem all that chaotic either. Why did you need me to accompany you when you went to find your friend?" Jingliu found it rather strange.

Jingliu remembered that before leaving the house, Chen Li had repeatedly reminded her to stay alert for dangers that could appear from anywhere at any time.

"..." Chen Li walked calmly down the street, but when he glanced at the Constraint Bracelet on his left hand, his heart was anything but calm. Instead, he felt an inexplicable sadness.

So ordinary people lived such peaceful lives in this world?

Did they not get attacked by strange monsters suddenly bursting out from beneath manhole covers?

Did they not suddenly see a car wheel hurtling toward them when turning a corner?

Did they not...

At least, whenever Chen Li wanted to meet up with one of his gaming buddies, he always encountered some utterly unreasonable incident that disrupted his plans.

But Chen Li had never found it strange, because this was what his everyday life had always been like.

That's right, the gaming buddy who called herself Houraisan Kaguya did not live far from Chen Li's home—only a little over ten kilometers away—and she had long since given Chen Li her address.

Yet Chen Li had never met her in person over the past two years.

What? You think she should come find Chen Li instead? That shut-in would rather pay an extra five yuan in delivery fees to order from a shop fifty meters away than step outside herself.

"Over a dozen kilometers? You're trying to kill me! I'm not going!"

Those were the exact words of that shut-in who called herself Houraisan Kaguya.

"How about... we try taking a taxi?" Chen Li suddenly suggested.

"Hm?" Jingliu did not understand why Chen Li had changed his attitude so quickly.

Before leaving, Chen Li had insisted on walking in order to deal with any dangers that might arise.

He claimed that this way, at least they would not have to pay for vehicle damage after already paying the cab fare.

"See? I told you I wasn't worrying over nothing! This world really is a complete mess!" Chen Li said excitedly, pointing at the two figures in the sky as they flew and continuously pursued each other.

"What... is that?" Jingliu had just gotten out of the taxi and curiously examined the flying objects overhead.

"Oh, a Magical Girl and a demon." Chen Li explained.

They had taken a taxi for over a dozen kilometers without anything going wrong. A world like that felt especially unfamiliar to Chen Li.

Now this was more like it.

"In this world, your identity is your profession. Cloud Knight Sword Champion is a profession, and Magical Girl is also a profession. Professions like Magical Girl, bounty hunter, and night hero can gain experience by chasing down and killing Demons and Ghouls, Goblins and Monsters, and the like," Chen Li explained to Jingliu.

"Similar to military merit, right?" Jingliu nodded.

"More or less. There's also a chance that killing them will yield a demon's profession certificate, which can be absorbed for more experience," Chen Li said.

Demon was an identity, and naturally, it was also a profession.

There were even people whose profession was Evil God.

The purpose of a profession certificate was to prove a person's profession.

If someone with an opposing profession absorbed it, they could gain experience. If someone with a non-opposing profession absorbed it, there was an extremely small chance of obtaining that profession.

This was also a terribly cost-ineffective way of acquiring a "profession."

But because of that, demons were hunted every day to the point that they were practically being turned into protected animals.

People often complained that there were simply too few Demons and Ghouls in this world.

"Why aren't you knocking?" Jingliu asked Chen Li, leaning against the wall with her arms around her sword.

She had to keep holding her sword because Jingliu had discovered that carrying it on the street also increased her experience.

"Patrolling" was indeed part of the Cloud Knight Army's work.

"Wait, let me work myself up," Chen Li said, standing before an apartment door and turning his head.

"Alright, come in. The door isn't locked." Just as Chen Li was working himself up, a familiar voice suddenly came through the speaker by the apartment door.

"???" Chen Li froze for a moment.

Chen Li and Jingliu had clearly sneaked into this apartment building to give his gaming buddy a "surprise."

Yet they had been discovered immediately.

"What are you standing there for? Don't tell me you thought you could sneak right up to my door without being noticed? Did you think my level 22 shut-in profession was leveled for nothing?" The voice through the speaker was sweet and pleasant, but its tone was full of disdain.

It was a tone Chen Li knew well.

"What the hell kind of profession is shut-in?" Chen Li had never even heard of it.

But since they had been discovered, Chen Li simply pushed open the apartment door and led Jingliu inside.

The moment he crossed the threshold, Chen Li felt an almost imperceptible resistance, along with the inexplicable sensation of being scanned.

After entering the apartment, he exchanged a glance with Jingliu, changed into the slippers that their friend seemed to have prepared in advance, and headed further inside.

The moment Chen Li entered the living room, he was instantly stunned.

Setting aside the peerless beauty sitting on the floor in an exquisite kimono, with waist-length black hair and slightly vacant eyes fixed upon him... why was there a bamboo grove inside her apartment?

Chen Li absolutely loved this decorating style!

"Hey, hey, hey, look at me! Didn't you come here to see me?" Houraisan Kaguya, having been completely ignored, glared darkly as Chen Li walked right past her and squatted curiously in front of a bamboo shoot that had just broken through the ground.

I'm gorgeous enough to put a fairy to shame. Am I not better-looking than that bamboo shoot?

You didn't even give me a single glance. This is humiliating.

"Tsk, I never expected you to really be Houraisan Kaguya. I thought Houraisan Kaguya was just your online handle." Chen Li clicked his tongue in wonder as he looked at the black-haired girl before him.

"Why do you call me Kaguya every day when you never thought I was actually Houraisan Kaguya? I thought you'd at least have some self-awareness." Houraisan Kaguya rolled her eyes at Chen Li.

"Isn't my online handle also an anime character? You can call me that too." Chen Li looked at Houraisan Kaguya expectantly.

"...Who the hell uses 'Dad' as an online handle, you bastard!" Houraisan Kaguya rather rudely raised her middle finger at Chen Li.

Although this was Chen Li and Houraisan Kaguya's first offline meeting, their familiar voices and familiar manner of speaking let them relax completely after trading insults for a while.

Mainly because Chen Li would have found it strange otherwise.

An anime character suddenly jumped in front of him and flipped him the bird! How magical.

He really wanted to snap that middle finger and see if she would feel pain.

It was not as though there was absolutely no chance—however slim—that the other person possessed the same ability and looked similar, so she had cosplayed as Houraisan Kaguya.

But no matter how perfectly she imitated herself, tags like Eternity, Moment, Princess, [Sinner], Immortal, and Moon could never be copied exactly.

That was what Chen Li saw after touching Houraisan Kaguya.

People had tags too.

It was just that, in most cases, Chen Li instinctively avoided thinking about it—under normal circumstances, he had no desire to cross that line and forge curios from "people."

"You rarely come looking for me. Want to have lunch first?" Houraisan Kaguya asked.

"Sure, but the food in that pot looks like it's only enough for one person," Chen Li said, looking at the amount of food in the pot before her.

"Isn't there another pot? Oh, right. Do you mind having some offal soup?"

"Huh?" The moment he heard the words "offal soup," Chen Li immediately had a bad feeling.

Then Chen Li watched Houraisan Kaguya, seated across from him with a sly smile on her face, calmly drive her hand straight through her clothes and abdomen.

The splattering blood nearly hit Chen Li in the face.

"???"

"Don't you think you're being a little too open with someone you've only met online for the first time?" Chen Li said, covering his forehead.

Even Chen Li, who had seen plenty of shocking sights, could not help twitching at the corner of his eye.