Miracle: Variance and the Lordvessel

Ashes fell softly like snowflakes in the deathly silent space.

Lu Xiu once again arrived at the familiar Kiln of the First Flame, stepping through the thick layer of gray-white ashes, and entered the Fog Gate.

Then, in no time at all, he took down Gwyn, his main objective being an instant death.

One act of respect is enough.

The second time was just following the routine, purely clocking in and out.

Next.

Lu Xiu casually completed the fire-passing process, not even bothering to do the quirky fire-passing gesture that was part of the joke.

This is also Lu Xiu's overall state after clearing the dungeon for the second time: defeat the BOSS as quickly as possible, and use parkour if possible.

Aside from the snacks served to Solaire, the rest of the time was mainly spent going to work.

To some extent.

Lu Xiu is actually quite fickle.

Regardless of the circumstances.

I've completed the game perfectly.

"Give me what? Give me what?"

Lu Xiu immediately opened the system evaluation and, at the same time as being transported to the Construction Space, looked expectantly at the settlement panel.

[You have cleared the Dark Souls dungeon!]

[Instance Completion: 100%]

[Overall Customs Clearance Rating: SSS]

[Experience Points Gained: 2810, Survival Points: 6600]

[Obtained Item/Equipment: Lordvessel]

[Special Rewards: Agility +4, Strength +4, Stamina +2]

[SSS Rank Reward: Miracle - Variable]

Settlement completed.

"Eh? A variable?"

Lu Xiu was curious when she saw the name of the reward.

This is not a miracle known in any dungeon.

But the name sounds quite interesting.

She clicked on it immediately.

[Special Skill: Miracle - Variable]

[Rating:??? (Unique)]

[Type: Rule/Actively Triggered]

[Ability Description: Players can use this skill on any target (including themselves), but the effect is random. It may grant a 10,000% increase to all attributes, forcibly deduct the maximum health of all creatures in the surrounding area, force the target to revive with full health regardless of death, reset the cooldown of a certain skill, or, of course, nothing may happen.]

[Special mechanism: The result is completely random and the effect cannot be predicted.]

However, the more desperate the target's environment (e. g., lower health, higher aggro level, more hostile units around), the higher the system's weight in determining a miracle and the greater the probability of a good outcome.

[Cooldown time: 5 hours]

[Consumable: None]

[Note: Miracles are never in the blueprint; miracles are what you never know will happen next. You redeemed a knight who should have gone mad, you rewrote a predetermined ending. This shouldn't have happened, but it did.]

Now, you have become the variable itself; in this world filled with despair, you are the possibility that breaks the order.

Take a gamble, gamble in despair.

Perhaps nothing will change.

Perhaps everything will change.

Perhaps—even restoring just one percent of your health could turn the tide.

"..

Lu Xiu fell silent after reading the skill description.

What a terrible skill.

What she hates most is probability.

If you're really gambling on probabilities, fine—but there's no odds published here.

Who knows what will happen in the end?

Furthermore, this is completely out of character for her fighting style.

When she was in dire straits, she used her last breath to create this miracle, hoping it would turn the tide, but in the end, her health only increased by one percent.

Just thinking about that scene makes me so angry I could vomit blood.

She could have avoided the damage better by using her skills.

disappointment.

Lu Xiu lowered her head, thought for a moment, forced herself to cheer up, and then activated her skill, creating a variable for herself.

Give it a try.

What if I'm incredibly lucky?

Buzz.

A faint, even somewhat meager, golden light flickered at her fingertips before disappearing into her body like a mud ox sinking into the sea.

[Miracle Triggered - Variable Successfully Announced.]

[This random effect: Strength +1 (Duration: 60 seconds)]

Looking at the panel, the +1 strength boost only lasted for a short minute.

Lu Xiu fell into a long silence.

very good.

Very powerful.

I added a significant amount of force!

This is an absolutely amazing boost!

"They really need to put out the fire, not save the world."

After checking the skill details and confirming that there were no probability formulas, Lu Xiu lowered her head in frustration again and muttered to herself.

However, this state did not last long.

"Never mind."

Lu Xiu quickly adjusted her mindset.

After all, the skill description clearly states that the weight of the miracle is linked to the degree of despair in the environment. If you can roll the dice in an absolutely safe Construction Space and get a +1 to strength, it means that the skill's bottom line is still there.

The skill description also makes no mention of any malignant curse.

As long as there are no fatal negative effects in the pool, it means that the skill is still generally biased towards buffs.

Although it's foreseeable that the so-called 10,000% increase in all attributes will have several zeros after the decimal point in the trigger probability.

But as long as it's not truly zero, it's possible to trigger.

In case we ever find ourselves in a truly desperate situation, we might need it.

While it's impossible to use a tiny probability as a trump card, it's at least better than the Titanfall reward agreement.

That thing is completely useless.

Lu Xiu shook her head slightly, then casually closed the skill panel.

Then, shifting his gaze, he opened another reward he had obtained from clearing the level: the attribute panel of the [Lordvessel].

Compared to Schrödinger's Miracle: Variance, this is something truly valuable.

[Special Item: Lordvessel]

[Rating: Mythic Grade]

[Type: Rule-based Creation]

[Ability Description: A vessel that holds the great soul of a king, and also the core connecting the world's nodes.]

[Special Mechanism (Placement and Teleportation): The holder can ignore distance restrictions and place an ever-burning Bonfire at any location. Spatial connections will be established between Bonfire, allowing players to instantly teleport to each other regardless of physical distance, dimensional barriers, or rule restrictions.]

[Additional Permission: The holder can grant Bonfire access to other targets, allowing authorized targets to move between Bonfire even when not in combat.]

[Placement Restrictions: 1. Entity Attachment: The Bonfire must be placed on a stable entity support surface (it cannot be placed on the surface of a moving vehicle or living creature, in the void, in highly corrosive liquids, or inside a living creature). If the support surface is completely destroyed, the Bonfire will be forced into a recycling and cooling state.]

2. If the location is within a spatial containment/magic-suppressing area of equal or higher Mythic Grade, the Bonfire cannot be placed.

3. Bonfire can be taken away, but Ember one-day cooling-off period is required before they can be placed in a new location.

[Currently available quantity: 0/4]

[Note: Run! Run as fast as you can, as long as you don't die! That's the wisdom of Architect! Lordvessel? Just icing on the cake.]

Looking at the prop description.

Lu Xiu's initial frustration caused by the variable skill vanished instantly.

This is a truly god-tier item.

Teleportation without distance limitations!

Most importantly, it can also be licensed to other people!

Although the world has been gamified, there is no teleportation feature. The only place where players can quickly teleport is when entering a dungeon.

It's like Dragon's Dogma —no, in some ways even more extreme than Dragon's Dogma.

Therefore, this Lordvessel is really useful.

Lu Xiu could use this treasure to establish herself independently—no, she could use this prop to enhance her voice and influence within the Coordination Bureau.

Sending members of the rear Coordination Bureau's Strategy Group to support the front lines has always been a major challenge.

For example, the flying monster from last time.

Fortunately, it's not large in scale.

If the scale had been any larger, the frontline Patrollers wouldn't have been able to handle it, and a major incident might have occurred.

Despite having many top-tier players capable of taking on hundreds of opponents, they are forced to remain in the rear due to the need to conquer dungeons, preventing them from immediately heading to the front lines when needed. This has always been one of the pain points for the Coordination Bureau.

If she could place one of the Bonfire at the headquarters of the Coordination Bureau and the others at the front lines where the fighting was most intense, this problem could be solved effectively.

With the authority granted by the Lordvessel, the members of the Strategy Group could freely travel between the two locations via the Bonfire.

This is equivalent to providing the Coordination Bureau with a teleportation point that can provide support at any time.

The authority over the Bonfire was in her hands.

Although Lu Xiu has developed some affection for this world and is willing to help, she doesn't always assume the worst about everyone.

Moreover, my recent interactions with Yan Fushou and the entire Coordination Bureau have been quite pleasant.

But...

Human nature is the most vulnerable thing; cooperation based solely on moral cultivation and vague goodwill cannot last.

Whether it's a dungeon, a display of power, or Lordvessel.

These are all necessary measures.

Although she looks like this, she's not really a young girl.

In addition, she needs the Coordination Bureau to cooperate in experimenting with the [placement] function. They need to designate specific areas in reality to place the copies and arrange sufficient manpower for preliminary closed testing and risk management. All of these must be arranged by the Coordination Bureau.

Even if Yan Fushou and others agree to these things, there will definitely be people who raise concerns about the risks, and it's hard to guarantee that there won't be strong procedural objections.

Lu Xiu was not part of the Coordination Bureau system after all.

Even if she is now the undisputed chief Architect of Nine Provinces, she cannot guarantee that no one will object.

But with a Lordvessel, it's a different story.

"That's great."

Lu Xiu closed the panel with satisfaction and carefully placed the mythical item in the corner of her backpack.

She preferred this kind of item to that vague and elusive [Miracle Variable].

As for the third pass----

Let's do it later, I need to rest for a while.

The cybernetic screw-driving technique in Sekiro left a deep impression on Lu Xiu.

It's still important to balance work and rest.

"I worked so hard to get a hidden good ending, and all I got was this crappy skill—next time I'll just choose the fire-extinguishing ending. What's the point of saving the world? I might as well just embrace the darkness."

Thinking about that awful skill.

Lu Xiu couldn't help but mutter to herself for a while, then brought up the system interface and chose to exit the Construction Space.

With a whoosh, a flash of Bai Guang appeared, and Lu Xiu landed lightly in reality.

Before she could even take a sip of water...

The communication panel popped up immediately.

"Um?

Lu Xiu was somewhat surprised and opened the communication interface.

The message was sent by a liaison officer from the Coordination Bureau.

[Miss Lu! Have you exited the dungeon?!]

[A major problem has occurred in the dungeon!]

[That Knight of the Sun named Solaire —he suddenly ignored the system's summoning rules and forcibly passed through the fog gate to help the players fight the BOSS! What's going on? A hidden mechanism? Or some kind of hot update? Can we say for sure?]

Heart""

Looking at the messages sent by the contact members.

A strange look appeared on Lu Xiu's face.

What?

Solaire volunteered to help other players fight the boss?!

They've even learned to ignore the fog gate rules and force their way in?!

She did change the predetermined ending of Solaire's madness, but that was only within her personal timeline of the game.

Other players' independent instances should be unaffected.

this----

Lu Xiu's expression became even stranger.

Now it seems that her clearing of the dungeon as Architect will have an impact on other dungeons, and the impact is even more outrageous than she imagined!

This brings us back to the time when the [Witch] dungeon had problems, and the system said the dungeon characters weren't cooperating.

this----

No way----

Is it really that exaggerated?

Lu Xiu was starting to fear the Placement Function.

However, she quickly calmed down.

wrong.

She wore the suit even when clearing dungeons, and during the recapture mission, the Titanfall didn't recognize her.

Peace of mind.

Even if she wasn't very human when clearing some dungeons, that was because the character she was playing wasn't human—what did that have to do with Lu Xiu? She could just ignore it when the time came.

Um.

Lu Xiu breathed a sigh of relief, feeling temporarily at ease.

We still need to try placing duplicates.

As for Solaire in Dark Souls now----

"No wonder the variable's note said, 'This shouldn't have happened, but it did—'"

Lu Xiu rubbed her long, smooth hair—this NPC she had casually saved had actually evolved into the official cheat code for the entire Dark Souls dungeon.

I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.