Arknights: Suika's Messenger Journey

"Just help me send this latest letter. Do you have an envelope?"

Granny Wang asked with an embarrassed expression.

"Yes!" Suika took a brand-new envelope from her messenger bag and handed it to her.

Before long, Granny Wang handed the letter to Suika.

"Then I'll have to trouble you, Little Suika!"

"It's no trouble. This is my job, after all! I'll be going now..."

Suika pointed toward the door, ready to leave.

Granny Wang grabbed a handful of candy from the table and placed it in Suika's hand.

"There's nothing tasty at home. Take these candies and give them a try."

Suika did not stand on ceremony. She accepted the candy with a bright smile. "Thank you, Granny Wang!"

With that, she put the letter into her messenger bag and left under the watchful gazes of the two elderly people.

After walking some distance away, Suika wiped the cold sweat from her forehead.

That old lady had been far too enthusiastic. Suika really could not handle it.

When she reached the area near her home, she looked up at the sky. The weather was nice today; even the cold winter wind could not blow away the warm sunlight.

She rubbed her stomach, spotted Uncle Dong's Seafood Shop and the fish ball shop beside it not far away, and walked in.

"Boss, one serving of your signature fish balls!"

After saying that, she found an empty seat and sat down.

The person inside heard her voice and came out. Upon seeing Suika, he noticed the bag hanging at her waist and could not help smiling.

"Oh, a messenger bag... You must be the little messenger who woke up on our street?"

Suika patted her bag.

"That's right. Uncle, do you have a letter to send?"

"I've spent most of my life in Lungmen. The people I knew outside have long since changed beyond recognition. Little girl, you've asked the wrong person."

Although Uncle said he had no acquaintances who needed letters sent, Suika still caught the fleeting nostalgia in his eyes.

As for whom he missed, recalling the setting, it was probably Master Zixu from Gou Wu City.

Soon, a large serving of fish balls was placed before Suika.

"Can a little girl like you finish all that?"

"No problem. I have a huge appetite!" Suika took a pair of chopsticks from the side and began wolfing them down.

Seeing how happily the girl ate, Uncle smiled in satisfaction.

"By the way, miss, why did you choose this street? There aren't many letters to handle around here... The previous messenger left after less than two months because there was no work."

The diners nearby looked at Suika curiously, wondering why anyone would choose this street. After all, everyone knew there was no money to be made here.

"Because I live here. That house over there." Suika leaned out and pointed toward Hoshiguma's home.

"That house? I remember that being Hoshiguma's home!"

Suika sighed. As expected of people who had lived on this old street for so long—they could recognize the owner of a house at a glance.

"That's right. I'm living at Big Sister Hoshiguma's place now.

"If you uncles and aunties have letters to send, you can bring them directly to where I live. Unless something unexpected comes up, I'm usually home in the afternoons."

It was simply the truth, so Suika did not hide it.

"Alright!" The diners all smiled and agreed.

After lunch, Suika returned home and first opened the Ibuki Gourd. The gourd that had been drained dry last night was once again filled to the brim with fine wine.

Sitting on the sofa, she tried to recall what the three Offering Boxes had each given her yesterday.

After a long while, Suika gave up thinking about it.

Because she had put money into all three boxes at the same time, she had received the items simultaneously as well.

"Eenie, meenie, miney, moe..." Since she had no idea which to choose, she naturally left the decision to heaven.

In the end, Suika's finger pointed to the chain on the far left, marked with a triangle.

Taking out the money Swire had given her, Suika lifted the Ibuki Gourd and took a huge gulp.

"May the goddess of luck close her eyes for me three times, may my lucky bloodline endure forever, may every pull avoid going off-banner, and may every all-in bring a full haul!"

Then she resolutely tossed one thousand Lungmen Dollars into the Offering Box on the left.

The next second, a surge of power welled up in her heart.

"It's here, it's here—the supreme power..."

One moment Suika was full of anticipation; the next, her eyes widened in utter disbelief.

What she had received was indeed powerful in a certain respect, because it was an ability.

In Gensokyo's setting, abilities were almost unique to each individual and also the source of their power. By developing one's own ability, one could gain tremendous strength.

That should have been a good thing, but the new ability she received was—Never Refused When Offered a Drink.

Suika was instantly dumbfounded when she saw the ability. Although it existed in fan settings for Suika, she truly had not wanted to see it at a time like this.

It was even more infuriating than Barehanded Blade Catching. At least the latter could catch someone off guard on the battlefield.

But Never Refused When Offered a Drink... How was she supposed to develop this ability...

Was she supposed to pull out the Ibuki Gourd in the middle of a fight and say—

"Brother, tired from fighting? If you're tired, come have a drink first..."

Just imagining the scene made her feel miserable.

And when she thought about how this ability had cost her one thousand hard-earned Lungmen Dollars, she felt even worse.

Clutching her chest, Suika took a long while to recover.

Faced with such a ridiculous ability, she could only tell herself that since it was already here, even if it was useless, she had to grit her teeth and refuse to admit it was because of her bad luck. This ability surely had great use; it was a gift from the goddess of luck. She simply had not found its true purpose yet.

After calming herself down, Suika looked at the three boxes before her again and fell into a dilemma.

What she knew now was that offerings to the Offering Box on the far left, marked by the triangle, could grant strange abilities—basic talents, in other words. One of the other two had given her the Ibuki Gourd, so that one would most likely grant items. The final one would grant skills.

She now had two choices: continue gambling on basic abilities, because for a newcomer who had nothing, abilities—or talents—had the greatest potential...

Drinking Leaves a Sip Behind? What, Are You Raising Fish?

Or use the remaining money to find out what exactly lay behind the other two Offering Boxes.

Considering how "powerful" that one-thousand-Lungmen-Dollar ability had been, the odds of getting good stuff from the other two were probably not high either.

Spending one thousand dollars to gamble on a trash item, or a skill she might never use or that had an extremely narrow range of use, was not as worthwhile as gambling on a new ability. After all, abilities represented growth potential, and since she did not need to worry about safety for now, a higher growth ceiling was naturally the best choice.

Of course, that was assuming she did not get another awful ability like Never Refused When Offered a Drink, one without any apparent upper limit.

After thinking it through, Suika did not immediately make another draw, because she felt that the awful ability from before was probably because she had not been sincere enough.

So she first bathed and changed clothes, putting on her original outfit. Then she found three bowls, filled each of them with wine, placed them on the table, and began dancing around it like a shaman while muttering under her breath.

"I go all in, I go ALL IN, I pull the cards, I turn the wheel of fate with destiny itself, wager everything, earn the glorious name of the Lucky Emperor, and offer all to the goddess of luck!"

According to the rules of the ritual, after circling the table nine times and chanting the spell nine times, she stood before the table and drained all three bowls of wine in one gulp.

Then, with great bravado, she tossed the last one thousand Lungmen Dollars into the Offering Box on the left.

Five seconds later, her complexion could only be described by that lyric: "Red hidden within a hundred miles, red turning black, black turning green, green turning blue, blue turning purple..."

Her initial guess had not been wrong. Offerings to the Offering Box on the far left really were related to abilities.

If Never Refused When Offered a Drink had merely been niche—

Then this new ability she had gained could only be called downright bizarre—once at least three people gathered, she could hold a banquet.

Suika's face was full of question marks.

She could understand every word, yet somehow could not understand any of them...

What exactly was this ability supposed to do?

What could it accomplish?

And how could she improve through this ability?

Suika's little head was filled with enormous question marks.

Then, like a salted fish that had lost all faith, she fell stiffly backward onto the sofa behind her.

Right now, she regretted it. She regretted it deeply. She regretted it beyond measure.

What was this like? It was like going all in with all your Orundum in hopes of a top-tier pull, only to get two six-stars—except one was Archetto and the other was Fartooth...

It could only be said that it looked beautiful, but those who understood, understood.

At that moment, she wished she could travel back a few minutes. She would definitely risk her life to stop her past self and absolutely prevent herself from wasting money on this.

Unfortunately, time flowed like water—gone forever.

She had no way to return to the past, so she could only swallow the bitter result.

At that moment, she could only drown her sorrows in drink, clutching her Ibuki Gourd and drinking heavily.

When Hoshiguma returned home that evening and opened the front door, she saw the same scene as yesterday: the living room reeked of alcohol, and Ibuki Suika lay unconscious on the sofa in a drunken stupor.

The difference was that Chen had come along today. She wanted to take a closer look at what kind of person this child who had suddenly vanished and returned yesterday really was.

"What a strong smell of alcohol... Hiss—how much did she drink?" Even standing outside the door, Chen could smell the alcohol wafting from inside and could not help asking in surprise.

Hoshiguma's brow twitched. Anger rose in her heart once again, though only a small part of it was directed at Suika, since she was just a child.

The greater part was aimed at the bastard merchant who had sold alcohol to a minor without authorization.

She swore that once she caught that damned guy, she would show him why flowers were so red.

After the two entered the house, Hoshiguma reached out and patted Suika's cheek.

"Kid, wake up. Kid!"

Suika groggily opened her eyes and saw the figures swaying before her.

"One, two..." Then she pointed at her own nose. "Three. Hehe, just enough!"

The next moment, the previously quiet room became a riot of dazzling colors, with all kinds of messy yet adorable graffiti appearing across the walls.

And on the formerly empty table, countless delicacies and fine wines appeared out of thin air.

Hoshiguma and Chen stood back-to-back in alert, staring at the house that had suddenly changed beyond recognition.

"Are these balloons?" Chen grabbed a floating balloon and squeezed it, discovering that it was just an ordinary balloon.

"The banquet begins. Please enjoy the golden hit If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking, sung by Miss Robin and accompanied by the Dreamweaver Ensemble, amid fine food and wine."

An announcer's voice with a Victoria accent echoed from the void. Then melodious music flowed into the two women's ears from every direction.

"What is going on?" Chen considered herself well-traveled and knowledgeable, but she had never seen anything so strange.

And she had never even heard of Miss Robin or the Dreamweaver Ensemble.

Hoshiguma shook her head. She was just as confused.

After all, when she had opened the door, her home had still been perfectly normal, yet now it had turned into this...

It looked like a small banquet, but when they had entered, there had been nothing in the room. So where had all these things come from?

Thinking of what Suika had said when she woke up, both women turned their gazes toward Suika at the same time.

Half-awake, Suika looked at the piles of food on the table and the three empty bowls in the middle, feeling that something was not quite right.

She immediately picked up the Ibuki Gourd and filled all three bowls.

After finishing, she looked up and saw Hoshiguma and Chen staring at her.

Instinctively, she said, "What are you looking at me for? Come drink!"

The two women, who had still been cautiously observing their surroundings, felt a peculiar emotion rise within them. They only felt that, since things had already come to this, having a drink would not be so bad.

After Suika raised her bowl, the two of them each picked up a bowl and drained it in one gulp.