Miraculous Forger of the Collapse Chapter 48

"It depends on the number and quality of my friends. Right now, I only have two friends: you and Yagokoro Eirin. Although my connection with Yagokoro Eirin isn't particularly close, my connection with you is very close, because you signed a contract selling yourself. So my defense should be fairly high now."

"..." Houraisan Kaguya's face darkened.

Could you stop bringing up that contract selling myself?

Just then, the phone in Houraisan Kaguya's hand buzzed. She opened it and saw a message from Yagokoro Eirin.

"Chen Li, something happened."

"What is it?"

"Yakumo Yukari wants a phone too," Houraisan Kaguya said.

The "phone" was one manifestation of Friends Circle, as well as the medium through which its communication function was used. At the same time, it was also the true form of a "friend."

When someone attacking Chen Li successfully broke through Friends Circle's defenses, the thing that took the blow for Chen Li at the cost of sacrificing itself was this.

When Chen Li used the original Miraculous Forging to create a new miraculous item, the two paper cups had each turned into a phone—one belonging to Houraisan Kaguya, the other to Yagokoro Eirin.

The phones were bound to Chen Li's friends. They could not be lost and could be hidden.

"Yakumo Yukari..." Chen Li rubbed his chin.

"I can have Eirin refuse her for you," Houraisan Kaguya said.

"Forget it, no need to refuse. Give her one. She did help quite a bit with this forging, after all."

If Yakumo Yukari were ignited by Miracle Fire, her attributes could naturally be extracted as well. So if Chen Li casually taking one of her attributes counted as helping... then Yakumo Yukari really had helped Chen Li a great deal.

What Chen Li had actually taken was the tiny gap Yakumo Yukari had used when spying on Yagokoro Eirin.

Chen Li had used several attributes to create the miraculous item Friends Circle—communication, teleportation, and connection.

Friends Circle's first effect came from communication, while its second effect came from the teleportation and connection of the gap.

Of course, an attribute extracted from a gap naturally had a lower initial brightness than a more fundamental attribute extracted directly from Yakumo Yukari.

Yakumo Yukari could instantly travel anywhere through spatial gaps, or move anywhere through cracks in space, even moving part of her body to another location. And it was not limited to physical space—she could also move through paintings, dreams, stories, and so on. That was where the attribute came from.

The communication and connection attributes seemed to be an excellent match and were drawing each other together, so Chen Li strengthened the connection attribute.

Friends Circle had consumed a total of 36 crystals. Five crystals had been spent on Miracle Fire, 15 on strengthening connection, three on strengthening teleportation, and 13 on increasing the miraculous item's capacity.

Perhaps because the teleportation attribute's brightness was too low, the cost of teleportation had been so high.

"I spent 36 crystals on you this time, so remember to make more fake medicine when you have time," Chen Li told Houraisan Kaguya.

"Yes, yes, I know. I'll never be able to repay your kindness, so I'll pay it back slowly." Houraisan Kaguya rolled her eyes at Chen Li.

Houraisan Kaguya believed Chen Li had partly done it for her sake, but mostly for his own.

Still, Houraisan Kaguya knew how to be grateful.

Wasn't it just fake medicine?

She would make it.

It wasn't like it cost her anything.

"Contact Yagokoro Eirin and have her ask Yakumo Yukari what kind of communication device she wants," Chen Li said.

"Ah, you can choose the style of the communication device?" Houraisan Kaguya froze for a moment.

"You can choose its appearance, then have Friends Circle print it out." Chen Li beckoned, and one of the many phantom metal rings that had suddenly appeared around him flew out, landing in his hand and turning into a solid metal ring.

"3D printing?"

"Something like that."

"That's pretty... high-tech. Can you print me another one? I want virtual glasses, or just give me a chat interface." Houraisan Kaguya spoke with great interest.

"Cut it out. Printing costs money. You already have one, so don't waste it."

"How much?"

"0.1 crystals or five Starstones. Thankfully, it doesn't have to be paid in crystals, or I probably wouldn't even be willing to buy the printing entitlement," Chen Li said.

It was precisely because establishing a connection required a "price" that "connection" could be used as the "price" to negate damage.

"The difference in value between Starstones and crystals is that huge?"

"The actual difference isn't that exaggerated. The main reason is that crystals and miraculous items share the same origin. That's also why holding a miraculous item gives you so many discounts during communication," Chen Li said.

"Got it."

"So hurry up and ask what kind of communication device Yakumo Yukari wants," Chen Li urged.

Although Chen Li, as a Friends Circle user, could directly send Yagokoro Eirin a private message, that would not have been appropriate.

"No need to ask. Yakumo Yukari wants a phone." Houraisan Kaguya waved her hand decisively.

"...You didn't even ask."

"I don't care. If I can't have a virtual screen, then nobody else gets one either. Especially not Yakumo Yukari," Houraisan Kaguya said righteously.

"Fine." Chen Li nodded, accepting Houraisan Kaguya's reasoning.

After all, it was not as though he was printing a communication device for himself, so Chen Li did not particularly care.

With a thought from Chen Li, the metal ring floating above his hand began to spin. Before long, using Starstones as raw materials, it forged a smartphone.

"Come to think of it, Chen Li, don't you think having only one app on the phone is a little too monotonous?" Houraisan Kaguya asked tentatively.

"What are you trying to do?"

"I think you could add an online multiplayer function. That way, I could queue up with people from other worlds."

"It already has one, in the communication functions. Go figure out the Friends Circle functions yourself."

"Then how about adding a food delivery function?"

"...Go play somewhere else." Chen Li would never specifically create a feature just because Houraisan Kaguya was lazy.

However, Chen Li could create one because he himself was lazy.

Laziness was the driving force behind human progress! Laziness was the source of human inspiration!

Because people were too lazy to write by hand, movable-type printing was invented; because they were too lazy to go out and mail letters, the telephone was invented; because they were too lazy to walk, carriages, bicycles, motorcycles, cars, trains, high-speed rail, and airplanes were invented...

Of course, efficiency was also part of it.

"Oh."

"The Friends Circle does have plenty of potential. In the future, it could become a platform for trade and communication, putting it to full use." Although Chen Li rejected Houraisan Kaguya's food delivery idea, he still approved of her direction for developing the Friends Circle into a multifunctional platform.

"Ooh, that sounds interesting. So when do we start?" Houraisan Kaguya was quite interested.

"The Friends Circle might become a One-star Artifact in the future, but definitely not now. In other words, we don't have the money." Chen Li said.

Leaving everything else aside, the price of "teleportation" at least had to come down.

The solution was simple: he just needed to increase the brightness of the entries.

After successfully forging the Friends Circle, Chen Li received 30 crystals and 200 Starstones. The gains could be considered worth the cost.

Since this Artifact could be used personally, it was not really a loss either.

Where did the crystals come from? Because he had given Gensokyo a tiny little shock from another world!

Chen Li could not rely on the Miracle Barrier for defense every time, since it cost crystals.

"One for my dad, one for my mom, and one for Tonghua."

"That's so nice. Why can't I have a virtual screen too?" Houraisan Kaguya looked at the virtual screens Chen Li was mass-producing in his hand, her face full of envy.

"Enough, stop being jealous. I told you already: once you finish rolling out a hundred thousand fake pills, I'll give you a new device. You can keep the old one as a backup." Chen Li said.

"Emmm... say, if a friend gets consumed, can you establish contact with them again afterward?" Houraisan Kaguya avoided answering anything about the hundred-thousand-fake-pills incident.

"Yes. You just need to make another communication device. It doesn't cost much." Chen Li said.

That was precisely why Chen Li decided to give Houraisan Kaguya a backup device, and Yagokoro Eirin one as well.

Otherwise, if Yagokoro Eirin and Yakumo Yukari were both consumed at the same time, it would be troublesome if he could no longer contact either of them.

That was entirely possible, since the Friends Circle began consuming the friends with the least contact.

And the only friends Chen Li had never met were Yagokoro Eirin and Yakumo Yukari.

"The Miraculous Forger is really convenient."

"Because the price was already paid in full when the Artifact was forged." Chen Li nodded.

Although the Miracle System and the Miraculous Forger both used Miracle Power to create miracles, their underlying logic was completely different.

One achieved things directly, while the other achieved them indirectly—or taught people how to fish.

"So what about developing the Friends Circle's functions...?" Houraisan Kaguya asked again.

"Develop them yourself. If you want something done, do it yourself. Anyway, in theory, any function related to communication and connection can be realized through the Friends Circle. You could even debut as a virtual idol, or form a band with someone that lasts a lifetime." Chen Li said casually.

"But I don't know Source Text at all."

"Neither do I. I'm learning it already, so there's no point rushing me." Chen Li spread his hands.

That was right. The Friends Circle was indeed a relatively blank platform at the moment, with plenty of room for imagination.

But if they wanted to implement functions, they could only write them in Source Text, because Source Text was universal.

As long as Chen Li wrote, "I want a virtual avatar of a white-haired, red-eyed catgirl beauty with fair skin, a pretty face, and long legs," he really could create such an avatar within the internet-connected space of the Friends Circle.

But Chen Li's vocabulary was insufficient.

He was already working hard to build it up.

It was not because Chen Li truly wanted to become a virtual idol in the Friends Circle, but because Wondrous Brush, a profession skill he might obtain in the future, was related to Source Text.

That was the grand promise the Pixie had dangled before him.

"Yakumo Yukari joining is a good thing too. If I'm short on entries in the future, I can first see whether I can get some from Yakumo Yukari." After receiving the notification that Yakumo Yukari had joined the Friends Circle, Chen Li was rather happy.

As an old monster who had lived for who knew how many years, Yakumo Yukari had plenty of things in her collection.

"Oh, right, Li Bao, can you give me administrator privileges? Then I can mute Yakumo Yukari whenever I want. Better yet, not only should I be able to mute her, I should also be able to make her real body go numb or have lightning strike her or something." Houraisan Kaguya suddenly came up with an idea.

"And, and, we could create a set of member rules too. Like forbidding everyone from spying on others." The more Houraisan Kaguya spoke, the more excited she became.

"You might as well build a Demon-Locking Tower... Hmm, wait..." Chen Li suddenly had an idea.

Combining entries of the same or similar types could expand an artifact's effective range, just like how Karma and Abundance had produced the Karma Balance.

Since Friends Circle was a circle, if he added an entry for imprisonment or restraint, could it gain a Demon-Locking Tower function?

Maybe it could pull all sorts of strange people into the group for supervision, while also boosting Friends Circle's defenses.

And people capable of possessing artifacts were often not quite normal anyway.

Do one thing and increase his defenses twice over—wasn't that a win-win?

"Thanks for the inspiration. Once I have the money, I'll make a similar function. As thanks, I've decided to appoint you as the artifact group's first administrator." Chen Li was quite pleased with his train of thought.

With the Skill Distribution ability and its tendency to distribute entries, many of Chen Li's wild ideas could become reality.

Some "phones" could access the internet, while others could only connect to the network.

For example, Matou Zouken would clearly be one of the lowest-ranked people in Friends Circle.

You know, we're throwing an insanely awesome party this weekend. All the important people will be there—but guess who didn't get an invitation?

"But I don't have an artifact yet. How about... you lend me Friends Circle?" Houraisan Kaguya thought the metal ring in Chen Li's hand, which could endlessly split, combine, and transform, looked incredibly cool.

"What does an Houraijin need defense for? Take my advice—you can't handle this artifact." Chen Li patted Houraisan Kaguya on the shoulder.

And besides, who said you couldn't join the artifact group without an artifact?

You could still stab someone to death without a spearhead.

"Cheapskate."

"Instead of complaining about me, keep making counterfeit medicine. If you don't finish making it, you don't get to eat."

"Then just let me starve to death."

Houraisan Kaguya truly did not understand why Chen Li needed so much counterfeit medicine. Were you really planning to buy out another world?

"Kaguya, you need to understand—you're not just making counterfeit medicine. You're making counterfeit medicine for world peace. Once I save the world, I'll definitely name you the world's greatest contributor to counterfeit medicine." Chen Li sat beside Houraisan Kaguya, cheering her on.