Shopping / Star Platinum's Progress

That blade was called Famous Sword Moon Shadow. Qin Mo figured Raiden Mei had probably understood it as "Famous Sword: Moon Shadow," but it was no big deal. It was just a name, not a weapon that required its true name to be released. She could call it whatever she wanted.

"Then that really is a peculiar discovery."

Things other than Stands could not harm Stands. That was one of the rules of Stands. Joseph had once suffered greatly because of this rule when facing Empress. His Stand had no direct offensive ability, but it could use gravity to strangle a Stand to death.

Fortunately, Empress's Stand was also fairly weak in terms of destructive power. The only disgusting thing about it was that it grew using the host's nutrients, and because it was connected to the host, the host would feel pain whenever it was injured. But that was all. It was equivalent to having a piece of flesh carved off one's body.

"Perhaps it's because this blade contains some special power."

Qin Mo made this guess. "This world has no supernatural powers other than Stands. If Ripple is life energy and vampires are merely a type of creature, then a blade containing magical power, as well as Honkai Energy, might be able to harm Stands."

Raiden Mei nodded. "But Empress seemed to grow faster than you described. It had already taken on a humanoid form in just a few minutes."

"Tell me exactly what happened."

From Raiden Mei's account, Qin Mo roughly understood the situation, but he also felt that it was somewhat troublesome.

Just as he had expected, Kiana's constitution had played a major role in this incident. The Kaslana family carried the genes of Fusion Warriors. Though generations of inheritance had caused most of those genes to remain dormant, the family's extraordinary vitality, recovery ability, and strength still made their physiques far superior to ordinary humans.

The Stand Empress had nurtured from that constitution was also stronger than the original one. He just did not know whether Honkai Energy had played a role in it.

Empress itself was nothing much. That person was not much of a threat. The real threat was Dio, the man who constantly developed his own potential. As a vampire, he possessed the ability to absorb blood and strengthen himself.

In this world, the Joestar family bloodline was among the more unusual ones. In the original story, Dio had indeed become stronger after drinking Joestar blood.

But what if he absorbed the blood of people whose physical abilities genuinely surpassed those of humans?

"It's nothing serious. More importantly, let's go find Joseph and the others. I just got some clues from Yellow Temperance. Jotaro and the others should be fine, but Joseph's side might have had trouble handling things."

However, when the three of them reached Joseph's door, they happened to run into two people bursting out of the room.

"Oh! Miss Raiden Mei, you came at just the right time. Please hurry and treat Mr. Joestar."

Avdol's face lit up with delight when he saw Raiden Mei. Without another word, she treated the two of them.

"I didn't expect Dio's subordinates to attack so fiercely. Were you attacked as well?"

After being treated, Joseph moved his body around to make sure he was fine before asking.

"I was attacked by Yellow Temperance. Kiana and the others were attacked by Empress. I interrogated him for information. This time, the enemies include Devil, The Hanged Man, Emperor, Empress, and Yellow Temperance. We've already dealt with the ones on our side, but who attacked you?"

Looking at the mess inside the room—water, juice, alcohol, shattered glass, melted mirrors, and a scorched cabinet—it was obvious that a fierce battle had taken place.

"We were attacked by Devil and The Hanged Man as well. Thinking about it carefully, the one who shattered the glass at the beginning should have been Emperor."

Avdol thought for a moment before speaking. Joseph nodded as well. "He shattered the glass first to draw us over, then The Hanged Man used the broken glass to sneak in. Devil wrecked the room to create an environment for The Hanged Man and used alcohol to restrict Avdol's flames."

"But they underestimated my Magician's Red. My Magician's Red can freely control the intensity and temperature of flames. Mere alcohol is easy enough to avoid igniting."

"I wonder how Jotaro and the others are doing. If that's the case, then all the enemies who attacked should be here with us."

While they spoke, Raiden Mei had already used Crazy Diamond to restore the entire room, preventing any accidents if someone came by later.

"Then let's go check on them. And Polnareff is missing too. Yellow Temperance disguised himself as him and entered the hotel with us. He was probably fooled by The Hanged Man."

"Indeed. With Polnareff's personality, he would definitely do something like that."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Mr. Joseph, why don't you use spirit photography to locate Polnareff? Though I doubt he'd be willing to come back."

"That's true. The Hanged Man and Emperor are still outside. Polnareff really is in danger if he's alone."

Joseph poured the water from the vase onto the table and placed his hand over it.

"Hermit Purple!"

The water stains on the table defied the laws of physics and formed a map of the nearby area.

Seeing a droplet constantly moving across the map formed by the water stains, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. "At least he's still alive, and he hasn't gone too far."

Everyone nodded. Since he was alive, there was no need to panic yet. Polnareff was a battle-hardened warrior, after all, and he also had intelligence on his opponents.

By the time they arrived at Jotaro's room, Jotaro was still engaging in a battle of wits with thin air. After Qin Mo explained what Yellow Temperance had done, he tugged down his cap to hide his embarrassment.

"Good grief."

That made everyone laugh.

"Hm? Mr. Joestar? Qin Mo? Why are all of you here? Did something happen?"

Hearing the laughter, Kakyoin Noriaki emerged from the bathroom after getting dressed and looked curiously at the gathered group.

"It's nothing. We were just attacked by Stand users, so we came to check on you. But things should be safe for the time being."

Joseph did not expose his grandson's awkward situation and smoothly changed the subject. "All right, everyone should go back and rest for now. Gather in my room in an hour."

Everyone nodded. This time, they could finally relax for real.

Shopping

"Qin Mo! Mei! Look, what is that? It looks so strange."

The three sat in an aerial cable car, and Kiana kept staring at the unfamiliar sights around them like a child on vacation.

Although she had wandered everywhere in the past, she had never had the leisure to sightsee. For a child, simply figuring out how to survive was already no easy task.

As everyone knew, unless someone particularly enjoyed looking at different scenery, traveling alone was not really pleasant. Besides, her actual goal had been to find Siegfried.

As a result, she had never traveled with friends in such a relaxed state of mind.

"That's called the Merlion. It isn't a real creature. Kiana, you've never seen one before?"

Qin Mo glanced at the fountain structure Kiana was pointing at.

At the moment, the three of them were taking the cable car to a shopping mall to buy daily necessities and clothes. As a tourist city, Singapore naturally had such things for sale.

They had the SPW Foundation's generous sponsorship to thank for that.

"Qin Mo, is it really okay for us to be sightseeing like this?"

Unlike Qin Mo and Kiana, who had fully embraced the mentality of tourists, Mei still had a bit of conscience.

"Didn't they ask us to look for Mr. Polnareff?"

Qin Mo waved a hand. "Don't worry. If Joseph truly wanted to find Polnareff, he could locate him immediately. What he said before was only for us to keep an eye out while we were at it."

"Look, aren't Jotaro and the others out shopping too? Polnareff is still here, and the enemy hasn't been found yet, so we won't be leaving for the time being."

And Dio's subordinates would not simply give up either.

Qin Mo did not say that aloud, but he actually hoped Polnareff could take care of The Hanged Man and Emperor. After Joseph and the others dealt with Devil, Qin Mo discovered that his crystals had increased—not only by the number of enemies Kiana and the others had defeated, or by Yellow Temperance, whom he had defeated himself.

That meant the system considered them a single team, so the enemies defeated by others were counted toward his mission as well.

That was undoubtedly good news for him. He had originally prepared himself to miss the rewards from several enemies.

If this mission was completed successfully, he would have three hundred-pulls and three guaranteed S-ranks.

Soon, the three arrived at the largest shopping mall in the area.

Though it was a tourist destination, it was not peak season, so there were not many people in Singapore at the moment.

But the shops did not close simply because there were fewer tourists.

In fact, fewer people was better for Qin Mo and the others. At least they would not have to squeeze through crowds while shopping.

"Qin Mo, look, look! How do I look in this outfit?"

Looking at Kiana in front of him, with white hair draped over her shoulders, a pure white dress, and a sun hat, Qin Mo commented, "Very nice. You look like a young lady from a wealthy family."

"If you don't talk or move around wildly, that is."

He added that last sentence, and Kiana, who had just been praised, immediately puffed up her cheeks. "What do you mean by that?!"

It had to be said that Kiana had a very good appearance. At Qin Mo's suggestion, she had just undone her two braids and let her long hair fall over her shoulders. If she stood there quietly, she looked like the daughter of some aristocratic family from a foreign land.

But the moment she spoke, she gave herself away. Not to mention that she was lively and active by nature, completely incapable of staying quietly in one place.

"Qin Mo, does this outfit look okay on me?"

Raiden Mei had changed as well and stepped out of the fitting room.

Unlike Kiana, Raiden Mei had chosen a top and long skirt. The pale purple base and purplish-red patterns added a touch of mystery to her appearance.

"Very beautiful!"

Without any excessive elaboration, Qin Mo answered with those three words. A woman dressed for the one who pleased her, and though his response was simple, Mei's cheeks still reddened slightly.

"So, is this lady prettier, or is Mei prettier?"

Looking at Kiana's overconfident expression, Qin Mo sneered. "Of course Mei is!"

Naturally, that answer earned him Kiana grabbing his neck in embarrassment and shaking him furiously.

"But wouldn't it be inconvenient to... move around in these clothes?"

Raiden Mei had originally wanted to say "fight," but there were more than just the three of them here.

"It's fine. It's not like this trip will end in a few days. It'll last at least a month, and it's a long international journey."

Qin Mo shook his head. "We can't mistreat ourselves, right? Didn't you two also try on clothes suitable for moving around earlier?"

Indeed, these were not the first outfits the two had tried on. In fact, the three of them had already been in the store for nearly three hours.

"Please wrap up all the clothes they tried on earlier."

Qin Mo spoke to the saleswoman beside them, who had been standing there like an idle bystander the entire time. After three hours of shopping, she was probably tired too.

"Earlier? All of them?"

The saleswoman asked in disbelief.

"All of them."

"Wait, wait, Qin Mo. Do we really need to buy so many? Do you have enough money?!"

Kiana did not react at first, then suddenly realized how much Qin Mo's brief sentence would cost.

"You should know that our next destination is India. Trust me, you won't want to buy clothes there."

Qin Mo pulled out a credit card and handed it to the saleswoman as he explained to Kiana, "Don't worry about money. The SPW Foundation has generously sponsored us with a substantial sum."

Though he called it sponsorship, it was actually an exchange of benefits. After all, Qin Mo was too embarrassed to directly ask Joseph and the others for a large sum of money. A small amount would have been fine.

Qin Mo had chosen to provide the SPW Foundation with some consumables he had drawn from the gacha that fit real-world logic, using them as research materials.

The consumables Qin Mo drew from the gacha fell into three categories. One was ordinary food with no effects, though it was at most tastier than real-world food. Another was food with special effects, such as the Sweet Flower Brewed Chicken he had drawn before. The third category was potions, usually health recovery potions found in many games.

The item Qin Mo had traded was called "Norton's Novice HP Potion."

It was a consumable item from a game. Qin Mo had been too lazy to even pick it up when playing, but in reality, it had extraordinary effects.

And compared to the absurdity of food restoring health, this potion was more scientific, since it had genuinely been made through alchemy.

In short, in 1987, it was practically a dimensionality-reducing strike. Qin Mo had exchanged it for substantial benefits. Of course, Joseph's connection had also spared him a great deal of negotiation.

Star Platinum's Improvement

"Then, Qin Mo, aren't you buying anything for yourself?"

Hearing Mei's words, Qin Mo looked at the bag of clothes beside the counter.

"I already bought mine while you two were trying things on."

Qin Mo bought clothes quickly. He had always been like that—he would roughly check the sizing, look at the style, then decide immediately.

"Just in that short time? No way!"

Kiana immediately jumped up. Looking completely incompatible with her young-lady outfit, she grabbed Qin Mo and dragged him toward the men's clothing section. "This lady will put together an outfit for you!"

Raiden Mei followed along as well.

Facts proved that even when shopping for men's clothes, girls could take a very long time.

Fortunately, Qin Mo once again stated that he had already bought clothes and could only buy one more outfit. Only then did Kiana and Mei give up on their plans to continue "torturing" him. Even so, they spent more than half an hour trying on that single outfit.

They also demanded that Qin Mo wear the clothes they had picked out on the way back. As for his old clothes? They casually threw them into a mall trash can.

After paying a delivery fee and having the mall arrange for the clothes to be sent to their hotel, Qin Mo took the two girls to dinner. After wandering around all day, the three did not look like they were preparing to kill anyone. They truly looked like tourists.

After all, compared to everything that had happened in the Honkai world, they could completely cast aside all their past troubles in this new world.

At first, they had worried that staying in this world for too long would cause something to happen back home, but the system gave them an answer: one day inside the dungeon was equivalent to one minute in their original world. Only then did they finally relax.