New Sign-In Mission

[Natasha's Affinity increased by 1%, Current Affinity: 86%]

As he looked at the Affinity panel, Jing Yan felt pretty good.

The Emotion Stone he had created not only increased her Affinity by quite a bit, but also steadily improved her mood, which in turn raised her Affinity even further.

In other words, if the person holding this item already had a fairly high Affinity for him, then as long as he interacted with them regularly, he could passively increase their Affinity.

[Today's Sign-In Location: Robot Settlement]

[Reward: Divine Power Advancement, Gain a New Ability]

"Oh, an advancement in my divine power comprehension?" Jing Yan was a little puzzled when he saw this, but soon understood. It was just like the ability he had obtained before, [Verbal Domination], which was an advancement of [Emotion Manipulation].

His other abilities should also grow stronger as he gained a deeper understanding of the divine power associated with his Path, "Eros."

Divine power was like a body of water. Whether it was a puddle, a lake, or an ocean, that was only the foundation. The real skill lay in being able to wield it.

Jing Yan was already eager to find out what deeper skill he could gain once his divine power comprehension advanced.

Still, his brows furrowed slightly. As the name suggested, the Robot Settlement was an area controlled by machines, and its actual ruler was Mr. Svarog.

There were quite a few forces underground.

Some of the residents lived in Boulder Town.

Many of them worked as miners in the mining area.

Besides them, there was another group called the Gold Diggers. They made their living scavenging, constantly searching underground for ancient ruins. Their leader was a robot named Mr. Svarog.

Mr. Svarog had a very unusual background and abilities.

He possessed some memory files that had supposedly been erased a long time ago. In addition, he could control certain mechanical creations.

The Robot Settlement was not only a base for robots; there were also humans living there, in Vagrant Camp.

The environment there was rather harsh. It had once been a mining area, but it had been abandoned.

With the Geomarrow Ore depleted, there was no heating, and the area had grown extremely cold. Frost and snow blanketed the entire surface.

In such an environment, besides the robots and vacationers who wanted to experience the snowy scenery, there were also some homeless people and adventurers searching for ruins.

However, under Mr. Svarog's leadership, the machines in the Robot Settlement and the people from other parts of the Underworld generally coexisted peacefully and left one another alone.

They even cooperated with each other quite often. For example, they needed the machines' help with mining and searching for treasures.

Though Jing Yan had already tested his divine power on the mechanical creations in the Fragmentum, it had only been one machine. His abilities were much stronger now, and he was about to encounter a lot more machines. Just thinking about it made him a little excited and eager.

Jing Yan realized he still needed a reason to go sign in, so he turned to Natasha beside him and asked, "Natasha, can I ask you something? Have there been a lot of mechanical creations acting up lately?"

Jing Yan asked.

"Ah, you mean over by the mining area? You could ask Mr. Oleg," Natasha said after thinking it over.

"What's going on? Can't you sit still? You just got back from up above, and now you're planning to do something else. Don't tell me you're thinking of risking an expedition to look for ruins."

Natasha looked a little worried.

"To be honest, was that thing you gave me earlier found underground, rather than in the snowy wilderness up above? Could it be something from the Geomarrow Trailblazer Corps era?" Natasha asked, full of curiosity.

She knew how difficult it was to search for ancient relics in the icy wilderness up above. So compared to asking her brother to look for ingredients for the Blizzard Immunity Potion, searching around the underground Robot Settlement seemed much more reasonable and reliable.

And Jing Yan was usually right under her nose.

She saw him every day.

There were only a handful of days when he took time off and wasn't at the clinic helping her treat patients.

So if Jing Yan had gone to the snowy wilderness, she would easily have noticed a change in him when he came back.

But Natasha hadn't noticed anything different about Jing Yan lately.

He looked well, not weathered by the wind and snow.

From this, Natasha concluded that Jing Yan hadn't found the colorful stone up above, but somewhere underground near the Robot Settlement.

Of course, everyone knew that Jing Yan had helped Seele, but he had asked her not to reveal anything about his power. Judging from Natasha's reaction now, she really didn't know about his abilities and had never suspected a thing.

Even if she had wondered whether he'd awakened a Path-related ability when he helped Seele, Natasha would have assumed that Jing Yan had awakened the same Path as her: "The Abundance."

"Machines, acting up... Did you meet some Automaton Soldiers over at the Robot Settlement, and find that stone with their help?" Natasha asked with concern. As she spoke, she took the Emotion Stone out of her arms again and examined it.

"Haha!" Jing Yan chuckled, scratching his head.

He felt a little awkward.

He hadn't expected Natasha's imagination to run so wild.

She had actually made up a whole story he hadn't even thought of.

Did she really think that the Emotion Stone he had created with his divine power was something he'd dug up from ruins near the Robot Settlement while following the Gold Diggers?

"Um... it's a secret. What matters is, don't you like the stone, Natasha?"

At his words, Natasha's face turned red.

She realized she seemed to have made her concern for Jing Yan a little too obvious, and couldn't help feeling a bit bashful.

Honestly, this guy...

Natasha grumbled inwardly.

He wasn't that old, yet he still put on such a cool, composed act in front of her—the true leader of the Underworld Fire organization.

He acted as if he had everything under control, no matter what he did.

What was even more infuriating was that he was being so mysterious with her. It made her feel both fond of him and exasperated.

She was fond of the fact that this guy, whom she had once treated like a younger brother, was becoming more and more capable. He didn't just know how to cheer her up; he was also good at getting things done and was fairly dependable.

At least compared to Sampo, that man who never lifted a finger without something in it for him.

The problem was that lately he kept leaving her hanging, making her worry about him.

This guy...

Did he still think of her as his older sister?

The memory of him grabbing her chest came to Natasha's mind, and her heart fluttered.