Miraculous Forger

"That won't be any trouble for you. Just stay home and relax. I'll let you know when there's news," Chen Li said.

"You're leaving already?"

"Yeah. My time is valuable," Chen Li nodded.

Chen Li had already achieved the purpose of this trip, so he intended to take his leave.

"Fine, wait a moment. I'll pack up and go home with you." Houraisan Kaguya stood up.

"Huh? Go home with me?"

"Of course. I've already given myself to you—are you not even going to let me move into your house?"

"...Tell me the truth."

"I'm so broke I'm practically chewing bamboo shoots. If you don't take me in, I'll be reduced to eating dirt. I can't die, but starving is really miserable." Houraisan Kaguya came clean.

Houraisan Kaguya had never expected Chen Li, Jingliu, and the others to come.

She had especially never expected them to come at lunchtime.

That made the food expenses of the already destitute Houraisan Kaguya even worse.

"How did you end up this poor? What happened to the money I gave you?"

Every month, part of Chen Li's fixed expenses went toward buying Houraisan Kaguya's Undying Remains, and it was no small sum.

And Chen Li had earned all that money himself.

A forger above the first rank would never lack money.

"I spent it on gacha," Houraisan Kaguya said bluntly.

"..."

"I'll pay rent with my body... I mean, with Undying Remains."

"That won't be necessary. Just use the Power of Eternity to help me make some counterfeit medicine."

"Counterfeit medicine? Sure." Houraisan Kaguya nodded.

"Then let's go. I'm used to occasionally having someone I picked up move into my house anyway."

"Okay." Though Chen Li's words sounded strange, Houraisan Kaguya was in a hurry to pack and did not ask further.

Chen Li, Jingliu, Houraisan Kaguya, and the others arrived at the apartment entrance. Houraisan Kaguya extended a fair, delicate hand toward the bamboo grove in the living room.

After space and time shifted and the world turned upside down, the enormous bamboo grove directly transformed into a crystal ball. Houraisan Kaguya took it into her hand and pressed it into her body.

This was the Inner World.

"Then, Teacher Jingliu, you..." Chen Li tentatively spoke as he looked at Jingliu, who had remained silent for a long time after reading the basic information on Honkai: Star Rail.

"Do something for me." Jingliu raised her head.

"What is it?"

"I'll choose not to retain the memories of this projection. You will keep them for me. Once you forge a specialized wonder that can suppress my Mara-Struck condition, give these memories to the real me," Jingliu said.

A projection summoned through Pale Justice could choose not to retain the memories of that projection.

"Teacher Jingliu, are you afraid that your original self won't be able to handle such a great shock?" Chen Li asked.

"No. I have confidence in myself. I believe I'm not a character in some game. I'm just afraid that, after learning this information, the me who is already on the verge of becoming Mara-Struck might do something even crazier," Jingliu said.

At the very least, Jingliu felt that the plan revealed by the game's current progress was quite good and did not need changing.

But Jingliu also knew that the current her was normal, not the her wandering on the brink of becoming Mara-Struck.

At the very least, Jingliu did not want anything else to provoke her.

"See? Even a mental patient knows mental patients are not to be messed with," Houraisan Kaguya murmured.

"Alright, I promise you. Take care, Teacher Jingliu."

"Mm. Goodbye." After glancing at Houraisan Kaguya, Jingliu's body slowly dissipated, leaving behind only a Knight's Training card and a ball of light containing this "experience."

"Hey, Li Bao." Houraisan Kaguya suddenly called out to Chen Li.

"Could you not call me that? What is it? Do you need something?"

"You called Jingliu your teacher just now?"

"Yeah. I've been learning swordsmanship from her."

"Swordsmanship? Teacher? Then are you interested in becoming a disciple who sleeps with his teacher? I can help you." Houraisan Kaguya's eyes lit up.

"Huh?" Houraisan Kaguya's speed at changing the subject stunned Chen Li.

"But let's be clear—you can't sleep with me after you sleep with her." Houraisan Kaguya spoke cautiously.

"???"

"Is this room just for me, or can anyone who comes to your house stay here?" Watching Chen Li skillfully assign her a room and make the bed after bringing her home, Houraisan Kaguya asked in an aggrieved tone.

"Stay if you want. Get lost if you don't."

"I was wrong, sorry. Oh, right, give me money. I want to spend on gacha." Houraisan Kaguya openly held out her hand to Chen Li.

"Demanding money so confidently?" Chen Li looked at Houraisan Kaguya in surprise.

"Demanding money definitely wouldn't work, but I'm asking for wages. Didn't I help you make dozens of counterfeit medicines?" Houraisan Kaguya said righteously.

"This... fine." Considering that these counterfeit medicines could trade for even more traits from people in other worlds, Chen Li agreed and directly transferred the money to Houraisan Kaguya.

The medicines Houraisan Kaguya made for Chen Li were supposedly fake, but they really could increase one's lifespan by around ten years.

The Power of Eternity really was useful.

But it would be mine soon!

Model of the Power of Eternity and Moment constructed. Current proficiency: 10%.
You may attempt to use it, but the results will be poor.

Sure enough, watching someone else use an ability was the most Starstone-efficient way to improve proficiency.

But considering that he still wasn't proficient, that making counterfeit medicine himself required Starstones and produced poor results, while having Houraisan Kaguya make them only cost him a meal, using Houraisan Kaguya was clearly more cost-effective!

"Since you can forge miraculous items, Chen Li, can't you forge one that finds the coordinates of other worlds?" Having received the transfer and become thoroughly satisfied, Houraisan Kaguya suddenly asked.

"Theoretically, I can. But before I met you, I didn't have any need for that," Chen Li said.

Finding the Honkai: Star Rail world did not require coordinates, because the Honkai world and the Honkai: Star Rail world existed within the same greater world.

If Welt could travel between those two worlds, there was no reason Chen Li could not.

And when it came to finding commissions, he had the Miracle Commission function...

"Then what about now? Will you forge a miraculous item specifically for me?" Houraisan Kaguya moved close to Chen Li and asked.

Return Home: Forge a miraculous item for Houraisan Kaguya that will allow her to quickly return to her world.

Requester: Houraisan Kaguya.

Reward: 30–100 Crystals

Risk: Medium–Extremely High

"???"

"What's wrong?" Seeing Chen Li stare blankly, Houraisan Kaguya asked curiously.

"How about you just don't go back to Gensokyo?" Chen Li suddenly turned and said.

Originally, the Pixie had added a feature for Chen Li that allowed him to see how many Starstones a completed task would normally yield.

But considering that Chen Li never did things by the book, she removed that feature.

Wouldn't he earn even more by beating up the requester after completing the commission?

Don't let the reward amount limit the upper bounds of your imagination!

"Huh? If I don't return to Gensokyo, are you going to give me a home?"

"The main thing is that sending you home carries a rather high risk," Chen Li said, stroking his chin.

Because the risk was too high, Chen Li had used his prophecy ability during that brief instant just now.

This time was different from Tonghua's case. Houraisan Kaguya's request was extremely vague, so Chen Li only vaguely saw two scenes.

In the first, the Dragon God was chasing Houraisan Kaguya down and beating her up. The Narrator wrote that the Dragon God deeply loathed miraculous items that could potentially disrupt the world's operation.

Considering that Houraisan Kaguya wanted a miraculous item that could cross worlds, it was perfectly normal for the Dragon God to think that way.

In the second, Yakumo Yukari used gaps to spy on Houraisan Kaguya after she had returned to Eientei. The Narrator wrote that the danger stemmed from Yakumo Yukari's desire for control and sense of crisis toward anything that could potentially harm Gensokyo.

"High risk? What's so risky about it? Crossing worlds has always carried this kind of risk," Houraisan Kaguya said anxiously.

"But don't worry. It's not a big problem. Just stay home and live off me; I'll handle the rest," Chen Li reassured her.

The Dragon God was both a dragon and a god. With those two debuffs stacked together, dealing with Them would be easy.

Yakumo Yukari, on the other hand, was somewhat troublesome. Miraculous items such as the Demon-Binding Rope had too narrow an application range, so forging one specifically for Yakumo Yukari would be a bit of a loss.

"You're cursing pretty viciously," Houraisan Kaguya remarked.

"Anyway, if I get suitable traits, I'll forge the miraculous item. If not, I'll wait until I make the name of Miraculous Forger known! Once I've built up my reputation, commissions from Gensokyo may naturally come looking for me," Chen Li said as he casually opened the Miraculous Forging Guide and looked at his personal panel.

Reputation: Lv1 (28/100)

PS: Almost no one knows your name.

This was a new attribute that had appeared after Chen Li refreshed the Miracle Commission for the first time.

Although that evaluation sounded somewhat insulting, this reputation also had a Lv0 stage. At that time, the evaluation had been—no one knows your name.

Chen Li did not really understand the principle, but when he used Crystals to refresh Miracle Commissions, he could gain reputation points. As his reputation level rose, "miracles" might come drawn by his "name" and proactively appear in the commission list.

Miracle Commissions that had some kind of "connection" with Chen Li had a higher chance of refreshing on their own.

And after Houraisan Kaguya came into contact with Chen Li, a connection naturally formed between them.

As for why he had 28 reputation points, each Crystal invested to capture a Miracle Commission granted one reputation point, while completing commissions granted a large amount of reputation.

Chen Li had refreshed commissions a total of seven times, earning seven reputation points.

Completing the cats' Infinite Cat Food commission had earned him ten reputation points, while Kikyo's commission had earned him twenty-one.

And going from Lv0 to Lv1 required ten reputation points.

"No problem. I can wait." Houraisan Kaguya accepted Chen Li's explanation.

Houraisan Kaguya had already waited two years, so she did not mind waiting another two.

"Oh, right. If we do forge a mystical artifact, you'll only have usage rights." Chen Li intended to make this clear in advance.

If they really managed to forge an artifact that could travel between worlds, Chen Li would probably need to use it often.

For example, he could use Pale Justice to summon knights, then use projections to pinpoint their coordinates.

If there were no fortuitous encounters, then he would create them!

Come to think of it, could killing Heroic Spirits make Heroic Spirit attributes drop?

"Seriously? I gave myself to you, and all I get in return is usage rights?" Houraisan Kaguya looked somewhat surprised.

"If you keep saying that, I'm going to take it seriously."

"Just kidding." Houraisan Kaguya shrank back.

When she thought about how she now had to listen to Chen Li in everything she did, Houraisan Kaguya did not dare keep teasing him.

"Tch." Chen Li had seen plenty of people who were all talk.

"Anyway, I don't plan on traveling to other worlds anymore, so that kind of thing would be useless to me. Nothing else, right? Can I go play games now?" Having gone several hours without gaming, Houraisan Kaguya's hands were getting itchy.

Compared to traveling between worlds, Houraisan Kaguya would rather stay home and game herself to death.

"Go play." Chen Li waved his hand.

"Bye!" Houraisan Kaguya ran off excitedly.

Watching Houraisan Kaguya's retreating figure, Chen Li considered a possibility.