The White Heron Princess's Concern

(Brain storage)

"Just as I thought, foreign cuisine has its own unique flavors."

At a pizza shop, the two sampled freshly baked pizza. Kamisato Ayaka pursed her lips and gently wiped the grease from the corner of her mouth with a napkin.

"Bacon, fried egg, and mushrooms—the texture is wonderfully crisp. It truly leaves one wanting more."

The noble-born girl naturally had an elegant way of eating. Her polite, delicate movements, paired with the pizza, formed a lovely sight.

"And this milk tea, compared to Inazuma's milk flavor, has a much richer sweetness. I like it very much."

"If you like it, I'll get you a cup to take back later." Lin Yiyi noticed that the special effect of the Space Between Water and Moon had vanished at some point, so he opened Genshin Impact. He planned to forcefully whale for Miss Chiori.

When he entered again, the loading screen was back to normal. Only then did Lin Yiyi realize that it had looked different earlier because it had been downloading that new app.

He calculated how much he would need to spend. In the best-case scenario, he would pull seven five-stars in seven single pulls and immediately get C6. In the worst-case scenario, every five-star would come only at the 180-pull hard guarantee.

Lin Yiyi remained expressionless. Kamisato Ayaka, seated across from him, saw the boy staring intently at his phone and tentatively asked, "You seem to really like looking at that little mirror." As she spoke, she could not help leaning closer.

"This is called a phone. It's a product of advanced technology, and it can be used for communication, taking pictures, and many other things. I'm playing a game right now."

"And all of you exist within this game."

Lin Yiyi got a five-star after only twenty pulls. Unfortunately, it was Keqing, the Yuheng of Liyue.

"This is Keqing, one of Liyue's high-ranking officials."

Kamisato Ayaka nodded. As the eldest daughter of her clan, she had heard Keqing's name during diplomatic dealings.

Lin Yiyi smacked his lips. "You know Chiori, right? You met at Fontaine's Thousand Spirits Festival. I'm planning to pull her into my team now."

As he spoke, Lin Yiyi showed her Chiori's wish screen.

Kamisato Ayaka said nothing, instead asking a question.

"I'll enter this banner too, right?"

Lin Yiyi was visibly taken aback before replying, "Yeah. Put simply, everyone with a Vision enters this banner."

"It's one of this game's mechanics."

"But it's precisely because of your existence that this game has so much more fun."

"Still, since it's like a lottery and involves luck, if your luck is bad, then something like what just happened can occur. The character you pull won't be Chiori, but someone else."

"We usually call that losing the fifty-fifty."

Kamisato Ayaka fell silent, then asked again, "When I entered the banner, did you pull for me too?"

Hearing that, Lin Yiyi opened the character screen and showed the girl her own image on the display.

Kamisato Ayaka looked at another version of herself, feeling something she could not put into words.

Then, she tapped on the weapon and discovered Mistsplitter Reforged. Immediately afterward, she pulled an identical weapon from the air.

After the weapon vanished, the girl tapped on the Constellation tab and found six nodes there, every one of them lit up.

Kamisato Ayaka scrolled through the other characters. There was Lady Raiden Shogun, whom she had met before; Guuji Yae Miko; her good friend Yoimiya; as well as the bard Venti, whom she had encountered during the Irodori Festival, Xingqiu, and others.

Every one of their Constellations had six lit-up nodes.

Kamisato Ayaka found it rather unbelievable. "I have heard a little about Constellations. But... are they easy to obtain?"

Lin Yiyi thought about it. "In the game, I suppose so."

Just throw money at it and tap a few times, and they came out.

But from the story's perspective, it was difficult to explain.

After using up his remaining sixty Intertwined Fates, plus the twenty-five extra Starglitter from Keqing, which could be converted into five more Fates; the twenty-five Starglitter from the five four-star characters, which could likewise be exchanged for five more Fates; and the eight Starglitter from four four-star weapons, along with some Starglitter he had saved earlier, golden light finally burst from the screen on the final ten-pull.

Lin Yiyi expressionlessly tapped skip. To his surprise, besides Chiori, Tighnari appeared as well.

"This kind of two-five-star result is called a double five-star. Likewise, three five-stars would be a triple five-star."

Lin Yiyi skillfully opened the shop and, under Kamisato Ayaka's puzzled gaze, topped up several 648 packs.

As another ten-pull went through, Lin Yiyi unhesitatingly tapped skip. Looking at Chiori's artwork at the very front, he explained:

"This is called back-to-back five-stars."

After spending over ten thousand yuan, Lin Yiyi finally obtained C6 Chiori and one R1 Uraku Misugiri.

Lin Yiyi took a deep breath. This was a little beyond his expectations. Looking at the ten thousand yuan remaining in his balance, he intended to keep spending.

He opened the top-up screen again and was just about to pay when a fair, delicate hand pressed down on his.

Lin Yiyi looked at the hand's owner. Kamisato Ayaka no longer wore a smile; her face was instead filled with gravity.

"Forgive me for asking, but is this transaction how you obtain our Constellations and weapons?"

"Yeah."

"Is the transaction made with Mora?"

"This world doesn't call it Mora. It's called money."

"But if you put all your money into the game, then won't you have no money left for daily life?"

Lin Yiyi froze.

"When you obtained other people's Constellations, including mine, did you also keep making transactions without end like this?"

Lin Yiyi remained silent. He did not know how to answer.

Kamisato Ayaka truly was perceptive. "Earlier, I noticed that the version of me on your phone possessed the same weapon as I do. I also saw blue light glowing from her hand, exactly like mine does now."

"If I'm not mistaken, the Traveler I know is you, isn't she?"

"So I'm a character in your game."

"I'm very grateful to you, Traveler, for giving me the power to protect others."

"But compared to such a tremendous cost, Traveler, I hope you can live well in the world where you are."

"The ones we care about are not only the Traveler, but also you behind her."

"Still, you're clearly a boy, so why is the Traveler I know a girl...?"

Lin Yiyi interrupted her thoughts. "You know the Traveler is searching for their blood relative, and at the beginning, we can choose either one of the two."

Kamisato Ayaka smiled. "What an unexpected revelation. So there is actually someone controlling the powerful Traveler from behind the scenes."

"Lin Yiyi, or rather, Traveler, I do not recommend that you continue making transactions to pull for weapons right now. I hope you will think more about yourself."

Lin Yiyi sighed, turned away, and took a bite of pizza that had gone slightly cold.

Worthy of the title "White Heron Princess," she truly displayed a noble young lady's kindness and gentleness at every moment.

As a Taoist who wandered the mortal world, Lin Yiyi had grown accustomed to the evil, resentment, greed, selfishness, and desire that existed everywhere in this world.

When surrounded by kindness, he became utterly at a loss.