"This is divine, absolutely divine! My martial soul is divine! Does anyone understand?"
Although Kokomi hadn't run away in the end, Ji Feng was still utterly speechless, because he'd discovered that even with memory resonance, he fundamentally had no control over her!
At most, she had no malicious intent to actively harm him. Someone like Kokomi could take his memories, grab the money, and run, and he genuinely couldn't do a thing about it!
Besides, Kokomi wouldn't actively hurt him because she was relatively kind by nature. Ji Feng had no doubt that plenty of characters in Genshin Impact would take his memories and still want to kill him.
He certainly didn't think memory resonance would make someone fall hopelessly in love with him.
What's more, even in real life, love turning into hatred was hardly uncommon. What guarantee could this unreliable memory resonance of his possibly offer?
This was beyond ridiculous! What a brain-dead martial soul!
Ji Feng spread his hands, disbelief written all over his face. "Seriously, am I the only one who thinks this is strange?"
"Why does everyone else who transmigrates into Douluo get a cheat, while I have to persuade my one and only summon myself?! How is that reasonable?!"
"There are only two of us here. Who are you talking to?" Sangonomiya Kokomi pursed her lips.
"I'm talking to the Heavenly Principles!"
"Where are these Heavenly Principles?" Kokomi rolled her lovely eyes.
Ji Feng looked utterly heartbroken and wailed repeatedly, "Exactly! There are no Heavenly Principles, so there's no justice under heaven! Now you understand too!"
"..."
Sangonomiya Kokomi merely stared speechlessly at the man gesticulating wildly.
"Do you know how miserable my life has been?! Zero innate soul power! Zero soul power! In Genshin Impact terms, that's basically starting out as a Hilichurl!"
Ji Feng grabbed Kokomi's little hand and shook it vigorously, his gaze burning with sincerity. "You have my memories. Can you understand my suffering now?!
"It's like I transmigrated into Genshin Impact and became a Hilichurl right from the start!"
"But I!"
At this point, Ji Feng abruptly straightened his back and shook his fist, brimming with passion. "I remained steadfast and unyielding!"
"Through my talent, I struggled and clawed my way out of that mire! From a life doomed to hard labor, I used my own wisdom to become an easygoing, cultured, ordinary human being!"
At some point, Kokomi had begun browsing the books on Ji Feng's desk. She casually picked one up and waved it, looking disdainful. "Didn't you just make your fortune writing smut? You make it sound like you're some great figure."
"That's not important!"
"What matters is that after more than twenty years of hardship, I used my intelligence and ingenuity to successfully uncover the potential of my trash martial soul. Through my tireless efforts, I finally summoned my first Genshin Impact character!"
"My long-overdue cheat finally arrived! Just as I was finally about to rise from the ashes, from a Hilichurl into a human! Into a real human being!"
"Hadn't you already become human when you finished writing your books? Why do you need to become human again?" Kokomi quipped.
Ji Feng ignored her and continued on his own. "Do you know what this character did afterward?! After receiving all my memories, she actually grabbed the money and ran!"
He immediately adopted an expression of mingled grief and indignation.
"Is that something a summoned character should do?!"
"I didn't! I was only playing a little joke! Don't slander me!" Kokomi hurriedly clarified.
"Sigh..." Kokomi sighed and helplessly closed the book. "All right, all right. You just want to know how to make the characters you summon obey you, don't you? With a strategist like me here, how could that be difficult?"
"You? An ornamental fish? That's pretty funny." Ji Feng gave Sangonomiya Kokomi a narrow-eyed look.
Her performance in Genshin Impact's storyline had completely failed to live up to her supposed role as a brilliant strategist.
"What's funny about it?! With Watatsumi Island alone, I fought against all of Inazuma's regular army, and ultimately succeeded in breaking into Tenshukaku! Doesn't that deserve just a little praise?!" Kokomi waved her little hands indignantly.
Ji Feng was puzzled. Hadn't this Kokomi seen his memories?
"Don't you know that whole bit was pure deus ex machina? One scene, you were evenly matched on Yashiori Island; the next, you'd pushed all the way to their home base at Tenshukaku. Only some extraordinary genius would think that proved your brilliant strategy. A normal person like me just thinks the writers ran out of ideas!"
"Did you actually share my memories or not?!"
Kokomi's cheeks flushed slightly as she defended herself, looking adorably indignant. "We didn't push all the way to Tenshukaku!"
"The main battlefield was still on Yashiori Island, but Kujou Sara was absent at the time. I assembled troops for a frontal feint while taking the opportunity to gather an elite squad led by Gorou and Kazuha and send them directly on another feint. Working with the Kamisato Clan from inside and outside, that was how we infiltrated Tenshukaku!"
After saying this, Kokomi sighed to herself again. "Well, nobody cares about our resistance army anyway!"
"Better to keep watching our wise and mighty Shogun, who possesses absolute military power yet still managed to let her country remain divided for an entire year!"
Kokomi spoke wistfully.
Ji Feng was puzzled. "You should know you're just a fictional character. Why does it feel like you're still so... immersed in the role?"
"How could I easily start treating myself as a fictional character just because someone told me this was fiction?"
Kokomi smiled faintly, her eyes exceptionally calm.
"Besides, it may be fiction to you, but to me, those were twenty-odd years I truly, genuinely lived through."
"You don't think having your memories would make me forget that I'm Sangonomiya Kokomi, do you?" She wore the same dignified, graceful little smile that had always belonged to Sangonomiya Kokomi.
"All right. As for controlling the Genshin Impact characters you summon, it actually isn't difficult."
Kokomi raised a delicate finger, slender as a young scallion. "First, you need to stop using memory resonance. An ability that lets others know everything about you is extremely dangerous. I believe I've already demonstrated that."
"Second, summoned characters like me can vaguely sense that you're a special existence. All you need to do is devise a plausible explanation, and you can become companions with all sorts of characters."
"For example, if you meet the Fatui, you can pretend to be a subordinate of the goddess of ice."
"If you meet someone from Inazuma, you can pretend to be the Electro Archon's lackey-ahem, the Electro Archon's subordinate."
"And with some of the more agreeable characters, you can pretend to be a fellow native of Teyvat who transmigrated here with them. It's perfectly normal for two people from the same world to sense a slight connection, just as it's normal for people serving the same god to sense a connection with each other. All of these can serve as evidence. Fabricate a plausible lie, and you can achieve your goal."
Sangonomiya Kokomi delivered her counsel with earnest sincerity.
Ji Feng was simply astonished. This strategist actually seemed to know what she was doing!
"Little Kokomi! So you really are a strategist!"
Without hesitation, Ji Feng hugged Kokomi's lovely, luminous white leg, clad in a white stocking, and pleaded urgently, "Please lend me your aid, honored adviser!"
"I have squandered two lifetimes and stumbled blindly through half my life. One conversation with you today was like parting the clouds to see the sun, like a withered tree meeting spring. Only now do I understand what it means to possess the talent to order heaven and earth! Gaining you is like a fish gaining water; as for recognizing my worth, it is like Goujian gaining Wen Zhong. When success comes someday, I will never fail you!"
Ji Feng launched into another impassioned outpouring of "heartfelt words," yet his restless hands stroked her stocking-clad leg, savoring its delicate, supple feel.
Kokomi: ...
Her temple twitched faintly, and she hurriedly raised her hands to push him a little farther away.
"Don't be so quick to call me your strategist. I haven't agreed to accept you as my lord yet!"
"Oh! What are you saying, my strategist?! We're family-why talk as though we're strangers?! If you don't help me, who will you help?!" Ji Feng hugged her thigh again and refused to let go.
Kokomi said disdainfully, "Even if the emotional side of my soul has already given in, my reason still can't accept serving a harem-seeking man whose only thought is to collect every beautiful woman!"
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