Miraculous Forger of the Collapse Chapter 41

"Oh, you're awake?" Chen Li greeted her without looking up from forging a Miraculous Item.

After idling inside the Miracle Barrier for quite a while, Chen Li finally remembered that he needed to forge a Miraculous Item capable of producing an endless supply of instant noodles.

"H-how long has it been? Did I miss anything?"

"Only three hours. Thinking about it now, those who were going to come should have mostly arrived. The show should be about to begin. You woke up at just the right time." Chen Li put away the Miraculous Item as he spoke.

And those who couldn't come... the Peaceful Longbow would go find them.

A Miraculous Item that could produce infinite instant noodles was very simple to forge. All it needed was an Eternity tag and a cup of instant noodles.

Three crystals did the job.

Chen Li had also added a Delicious tag, hoping the other party would leave a positive review.

It wasn't because Chen Li got any sense of psychological achievement from it. Rather, after he had just frightened his client into fainting, he gained a new trait—his first class trait: Positive Review Cashback: Upon receiving a positive review from the holder of a Miraculous Item (recognition and affirmation), gain additional experience based on the crystals consumed while forging the item.

Chen Li had been dumbfounded at the time.

I was already planning to stop being human, and you give me a trait like this? Is that appropriate?

Although Positive Review Cashback returned class experience rather than crystals, with the Miraculous Forger class requiring ever more experience, it was still quite a useful trait.

In any case, he would use it for now. Then he would figure out its exact effects and see what kind of review counted as a positive one.

"Now I'll show you how I clean up these ghosts and monsters." Chen Li tossed a Miracle Crystal into the Miracle Barrier to renew it.

Then Chen Li snapped his fingers.

As a Starstone vanished, a magic formation covered in profound patterns appeared, and Kikyo slowly stepped out from it.

"Kikyo, long time no see."

"Long... time no see? What have you gone and done this time?" Kikyo was quite startled when her true body answered the summons and saw the scene before her.

"This is my new client. She can see abnormal entities—ghosts and monsters. In this world, once those ghosts discover that someone can see them, they devour that person. To resolve her concerns, I decided..."

"You decided to eliminate the ghosts haunting her?"

"No, I decided to eliminate every ghost in this world."

"???" Kikyo did not understand, and she was greatly shaken.

"Right now, I've drawn over nearly half the ghosts in this world. Next comes the cleanup. So it's time for the Peaceful Longbow to act." Chen Li pointed to the longbow in Kikyo's hands.

"Oh... no, wait a moment. The Peaceful Longbow can set a sin value. If you've gathered half the ghosts in the world here and activate Cleansing Moment, the Peaceful Longbow's cleansing barrier may be able to cover the entire world. That means humans in this world whose sin values exceed the threshold will be killed as well." Kikyo hurriedly said.

"I know."

"You know?"

"I forged the Miraculous Item. How could I not know what it does? So use it. If you won't, then give it to me and I'll use it. Come to think of it, it probably isn't good to get blood on the hands of a Shrine Maiden like you." Chen Li nodded, realizing where he had gone wrong.

"That isn't the issue at all. If you truly do as you say, I'm afraid hundreds of thousands of people could die beneath the Peaceful Longbow." Kikyo said worriedly.

Kikyo was not worried about those people. She was worried about Chen Li.

Because Kikyo knew that slaying demons and exorcising evil were completely different from punishing the wicked.

If he kills hundreds of thousands of people, won't he have nightmares every day?

"How could that be?" Chen Li waved his hand.

"Could it be that the moral standards of the humans in this world are unusually high?"

"I mean, how could it be only hundreds of thousands? Miko, tell her how many people there are on Earth." Chen Li glanced at Miko beside him.

"At least over seven billion," Miko said.

"That is, seven hundred thousand ten-thousands," Chen Li explained.

Miko and Chen Li gave Kikyo, an ancient person, a small shock from modern population figures.

"...Do you really understand what that means? Even if we assume only one out of every thousand people meets the minimum sin value for a bad person, you would still be killing nearly ten million people." Kikyo was even more shaken.

Nearly ten million people, and you wouldn't even blink?

"It seems you're still under psychological pressure. I'll do it instead." Chen Li directly took the Peaceful Longbow from Kikyo's hands.

Chen Li checked it and discovered that while he had been busy these past few days, Kikyo had not been idle either. There were already over a hundred Wicked Souls within the Peaceful Longbow.

That was enough startup capital to activate Cleansing Moment, since the surrounding area was packed with ghosts and monsters that could all serve as fuel.

"Knowing clearly that so many people will die to your arrows, are you really not worried about having nightmares?" Before Chen Li drew the longbow, Kikyo asked once again.

"Perhaps you don't know me very well. I've always thought the death penalty in criminal law is far too lenient. I think attempted Child trafficking should be punishable by death, School bullying should also be punishable by death, and even whoever invented shake-to-match should at least get life imprisonment. So... I think the people who should be having nightmares every day aren't me." Chen Li was unconcerned as he decisively activated Cleansing Moment.

Decisiveness was one of the keys to how Chen Li had escaped danger time and again despite encountering so many troubles.

Even evil gods can't give me nightmares. What gives them the right?

Only morality can judge me.

And right now, morality stands on my side!

Let the final amount of Approval of Noble Morality determine whether my actions are right or wrong.

And if they turn out to be wrong? Then there's something wrong with this "heaven"!

The blood-red arrows burst through the Miracle Barrier, which had been tightly surrounded by ghosts and monsters, and transformed into a countless rain of arrows that fell from above.

At the same time, the blood-red barrier representing Cleansing Moment spread out, rapidly expanding across the entire world as the arrow rain reaped its harvest.

First Trait—Positive Review Cashback?!

"Tch, I thought there'd be a few ghosts left over, but I didn't expect there really wouldn't be any good ghosts left." Chen Li walked out of the Miracle Barrier with a troubled expression.

Who was he supposed to collect ghost loot from now?

Huh? Ghosts didn't have loot? Then never mind.

As supernatural entities, the only thing of value about ghosts was themselves. But the Cut the Weeds and Eliminate the Roots attribute of the Peaceful Longbow was simply too outstanding. Not even a strand of hair remained of those ghosts—they had been burned to nothing.

"Meow, meow, meow."

"Oh, there's fur. And a cat." Seeing the supernatural kitten staring at him in terror, Chen Li grabbed it by the scruff of its neck and lifted it up.

"Don't kill it!" Miko, who had timidly stepped out of the Miracle Barrier, hurriedly said.

"You know it?"

"Uh... I saw one on someone before. They seem to be anomalies formed from stray cats, and they're protecting their former owners," Miko said softly.

"Don't worry, it's not like I'm some bloodthirsty person. Alright, let's go." After setting the supernatural kitten back on the ground, Chen Li looked at Miko again.

"What?" Miko instinctively hid behind Kikyo.

"Leave a positive review, thanks."

"Uh..."

"What, do you think I didn't do well enough?" Chen Li widened his eyes.

"Y-Yes, yes, you did more than well enough." Miko nodded repeatedly, her voice trembling.

Big brother, please put away your divine powers.

Though Miko was in the middle of nowhere, her phone still had a signal.

Over the past hour, Miko had watched through the livestream as countless lives turned to ash beneath the rain of arrows.

Chen Li and Kikyo had said that they were all bad people whose sin values were far above the standard line, but... it was still terrifying.

According to reports on the official website, the death toll was still being counted, but it was simply impossible to tally.

"I feel like you're not being very sincere," Chen Li said with a frown.

"I'm sincere, very sincere!" Miko was practically about to cry from fright.

Career Experience +3

"If that counts as a positive review, then this trait has some room for exploitation." Chen Li was quite pleased when he saw that Positive Review Cashback had genuinely triggered and granted him Career Experience.

Come to think of it, how many people who left good reviews for a shop did so because the product was actually that good? Didn't they leave those reviews because the seller offered cashback?

Chen Li knew that his actions might indeed have seemed somewhat frightening to ordinary people, so he did not hold Miko's lapse in manners against her.

And when he saw the Miracle Card floating beside him, Chen Li became even happier.

This not only meant he had obtained a huge amount of crystals again, but also that all the tasks in his third Novice Task had finally been completed.

Cleanup Master (Miracle Card): This mortal world has become filthy once more. This is... the moment of cleanup!

Effect 1: Every act of cleaning filth will become your merit. Merit can be used to initiate judgment upon filthy beings and, depending on their crimes, transform them into slime cleaners to devour filth for the world. Their sins shall determine the duration of their sentence. Once their sentence is complete, you may choose to kill or release them. (Merit can be consumed to increase the duration of their sentence.)

Effect 2: You may control any container capable of holding trash to imprison others. The duration and strength of imprisonment are related to the sins carried by the target. (Merit may be consumed to weave a deluxe container, enhancing its effects.)

Effect 3: Each time you complete a reasonable act of cleaning filth, you will receive a corresponding random reward.

Effect 4: Can be used to forge miraculous items.

Although this Miracle Card did not appear to have any direct offensive power, it could turn people into slime cleaners. It was essentially a permanent Shapeshifting spell. Could you handle that?

Though the second effect looked somewhat ridiculous, it should count as a form of crowd control.

In any case, a Miracle Card with four effects could not possibly be bad.

Besides the newly acquired Miracle Card, the effects of One Arrow Once Slaughtered a Million Demons had also been strengthened across the board due to Chen Li's slaughter this time.

The overwhelming merit Chen Li gained from this cleanup—Approval of Noble Morality—also proved that Chen Li had done nothing wrong.

The Miracle Card also recorded the merit Chen Li had earned from this "cleanup."

A reward for cleaning filth? The Miracle Card itself was the reward.

That was because merit was recorded on Chen Li himself, while rewards needed to be converted through a Miracle Card.

"Only morality can judge me, and morality is on my side this time." Chen Li planted his hands on his hips.

"But what if... you did something immoral?" Miko asked carefully.

"Then pretend I never said that," Chen Li replied.

"...Your moral bottom line is pretty flexible."

"If your moral bottom line isn't flexible, how are you supposed to save the world?"

"..." Miko had not expected the young man before her to possess such lofty ideals.

"You don't need to look at me with such admiration. If I saved the world, it would only be because it happened to be convenient." Chen Li waved a hand.

And because it served his interests.

Only worlds that had not yet been destroyed would yearn for miracles.

"Th-then, what do we do now?" Miko looked troubled as she gazed at the devastated wilderness around them.

"Of course, we each go home and find our own mothers."

"But won't someone come looking for trouble with me? After all, I was right at the center of that storm of arrows. Could the satellites in the sky already be looking this way?" Miko asked anxiously.

"Oh, you don't need to worry about that. As long as you stay inside that Miracle Barrier, nothing can make out what you look like, because I already censored the barrier. And you came here by bike, so you didn't leave any traces. That protects your privacy to the greatest extent possible."

"But..."

"I know what you're worried about. Here, take this horn and sign a friend contract. If someone follows the clues and finds you, notify me immediately. I'll summon you to another world." Chen Li placed the strange horn in Miko's hand.

"But I don't want to leave my home behind yet."

"Who said you had to leave your home behind? Once you're safe, I'll come over, then kill everyone who wants to capture you. Wouldn't that solve it?"

"..." Miko was even more frightened now.

This peer of hers was nice, sure, but he was a little too nice. Nice in a downright unsettling way.

"Ahem, I'm kidding. This Karma Coin is for you. It can help ward off disasters and resolve difficulties, offsetting karma." Chen Li handed Miko a coin-shaped Approval of Noble Morality.

Chen Li figured these people probably would not understand what "Approval of Noble Morality" meant, so he used the more conventional name instead.

But the Karma Coin vanished the instant it reached Miko's hand.

"What... is going on?"

"It means it already helped you avert a disaster, so it was used up. Forget it, I'll just give you ten directly. No need for change." Chen Li directly placed a bag of coins in her hands.