Chapter 274: Direct Your Concerns Towards the Substitute |
May 10th, in the Gospel Kingdom, at the bathhouse of the Funeral Firm.
It was 7 AM, and dawn had already broken. Ashe arrived in his swim trunks, hearing voices from the bathhouse. Upon entering, he found that someone was already occupying the place.
Splash!
Ashe jumped in, creating a splash of water. Igor, with a look of disdain, used his spirit to blow the droplets back, “(*￣︿￣) Ashe, how old are you this year? Did you graduate from the senior class of the Nursery?”
On the other side, Harvey was lying on a massage lounger in the bath, smoking a Catnip Cigarette, with the water bubbling beneath him. The Necromancer had turned on the ceiling’s sun lamps; warm, intense light bathed him, epitomizing the ultimate in comfort, as if to say, ‘any place can be a seaside retreat if you desire it.’
In comparison to Ashe and Igor, Harvey seemed quite normal. His skin was dark, making him look like a laborer, and his speech was straightforward. Though morally flexible, his desires were not high, fitting the type who goes with the flow.
If Harvey had come to the Gospel Kingdom alone, he might have been picked up by some wealthy woman, doing housework by day and tomb raiding by night, leading a flavorful life.
Even considering his necrophilia and Sugar Addiction, neither harmed others, only affecting Corpses and himself, which upon reflection, might not be unacceptable…
Ashe abruptly splashed water on his face and sank deeper into the bath.
Having been around this group for too long, even Harvey, who seemed less offensive compared to Igor and Annan, started to appear decent.
“What were you guys talking about just now?” Ashe relaxed in the bath, his stiff muscles aching in response to his attempts at appeasement. “Igor, were you recommending another Shadow Drama?”
“I did, but you guys don’t watch them anyway. Why should I bother?” Igor replied coldly. “The last one I recommended, ‘The Redemption of the Wife,’ is a classic from the Gospel Kingdom not to be missed in these past Ten Years.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to watch, but when do I have the time—”
“Why don’t you just watch it at 32x speed?”
“If I had a gun in my hand right now, I’d shoot you dead and then ask why you didn’t dodge.”
“We were just discussing artistic creation,” Harvey said, exhaling a wisp of pale green Catnip Smoke. “How to properly sculpt a character.”
Although Ashe found their topic a bit odd, he didn’t think too much about it and casually said, “Then you’ve come to the right person. Crafting characters is my forte. Listen carefully, for every word I say is a gem.”
“Oh? Were you a novelist before? Written any masterpieces? I read in my spare time, I might have come across your work,” Igor sneered.
“I’m not a writer, but my occupation requires even more character crafting than writing does,” Ashe spoke confidently. “Our business is all about creating characters to trick money out of kids.”
Igor instinctively wanted to retort, but after a moment of thought, he nodded thoughtfully, “Right, you were a Cult Leader before; you really are a professional.”
Ashe thought Igor surely misunderstood the scope of a Cult Leader’s work, but he was too lazy to explain and continued, “Creating a compelling character involves many dimensions: appearance, personality, abilities, background, and aspirations… But it all boils down to two things: Sexual Function and Functionality.”
Igor and Harvey blinked, evidently shocked by Ashe’s blunt truth.
“Strong beauties, mad beauties, haughty coldness, wealthy beauties… These character images are deeply popular and resonate so well because they fulfill the two major needs of Sexual Function and Functionality. When you sculpt a character, you need to consider, does this character arouse your desires? Can this character alleviate your suffering? If the answer to both is yes, then you have a successful character.”
“Whether this character becomes a timeless classic depends on a spark of inspiration and the course of history. You can’t force it.”
As an operations planner for a mobile gaming company, Ashe had not directly engaged in character creation but had attended internal training sessions and was well-versed in how character planning systematically extracted money from middle and high school students. While individual creation might occasionally strike gold with a brilliant piece, the creation process at a mobile gaming company resembled an industrial assembly line. It involved arranging and combining popular elements to cater to ‘Sexual Function’ and ‘Functionality’, thereby compelling people to impulsively reach for their wallets.
Harvey seemed greatly inspired by the conversation. He pinched off his Catnip Cigarette and climbed out of the bath, casually grabbing a towel from the side to wrap around himself: “As expected from a former Cult Leader, you’re indeed the right person for this kind of job. I can’t contain my inspiration anymore; I’m heading back to my room to create.”
Watching Harvey rush off, Ashe scratched his head: “Strange, Harvey doesn’t seem like the type who enjoys writing novels…”
Igor also exited the bath, shaking his long hair dripping with water, and casually draped a towel around himself. He slicked back his wet bangs with his hand and glanced at Ashe.
“Who told you he writes novels?”
Ashe stiffened, suddenly realizing a possibility. He stared intently at Igor: “He’s asking about character crafting techniques to use them on virtual characters, isn’t he?”
Igor remained silent, looking at him briefly before walking out of the bathhouse.
Ashe grew anxious: “It’s for virtual characters, right!?”
Now alone in the bathhouse, the sun slowly rose, ushering in a new day in Azura, with its warm rays reflecting into the water.
Ashe let the buoyancy lift his body, floating on the water’s surface like a corpse.
Three days earlier, when Ashe and Annan had returned early in the morning, they had just seen Igor and Harvey coming off work from the Virtual Realm, sitting in the living room as if waiting for his return.
Feeling a bit guilty for not buying any gifts during his outing, Ashe invited them to join him in the bathhouse, hoping to divert attention by discussing the social system of the Gospel.
However, this seemed to set a precedent. For the next three days, after clocking out from their Exploration in the Virtual Realm, they would soak in the bathhouse and casually chat. This allowed Ashe to quickly realize that their exploration skills in the Virtual Realm were not inferior to his—they usually arrived after dawn, indicating that each of them was capable of exploring the Time Continent for a full six hours.
Although they had neither maps nor sports cars, their unique methods of exploration seemed to match Ashe’s in duration.
Ashe even suspected that they had their own means of transportation; otherwise, at least half of their Soul Energy would be consumed in traveling, making it impossible to endure for six hours—a mere three hours would have drained them.
Harvey’s transportation was easy to guess: he was either riding a skeletal horse or a skeleton man, or perhaps even improvising by riding a Slaying Fish-Dragon made of bones on the spot. Igor was harder to predict. Could it be that his Mind Faction was powerful enough to hypnotize Intelligent Creatures to serve as his mounts?
That wasn’t right. Ashe recalled a conversation from the previous day in the bath, where he had asked Igor if he had ever used Mind Miracles for any indecent acts. Igor had responded, “First off, the things you’re imagining—I can indeed do them. But even without miracles, I’ve been capable of that for a long time and am quite bored of it; moreover, Ashe, you shook the water in your head and asked, ‘Since you can hypnotize others, why not hypnotize yourself?’”
“Hypnotizing oneself is much simpler and more effective. You can set the plot, the characters, the content—anything you like. In reality, you might be limited by physical functions, but in illusions, you can be as bold as you want… In fact, Mind Sorcerers rarely directly hypnotize others; instead, they use language and gestures as subtle cues to guide others to the conclusions they desire.”
“Only a mediocre Mind Sorcerer would use miracles to achieve their goals. Most of the time, the subject of a Mind Sorcerer’s hypnosis is themselves.”
“Mind Faction is not about warping others, but about sculpting oneself.”
So, it’s highly likely that Igor is not hypnotizing Knowledge Creatures, but rather hypnotizing himself to believe that “walking is not tiring at all!”
In fact, this is the normal encounter for sorcerers Exploring the Virtual Realm: Sorcerers from different factions use different methods to mitigate the adverse factors in the Virtual Realm.
Indeed, there’s no way around the Sea of Knowledge; everyone starts off inexperienced and must struggle through it. However, once reaching the Time Continent, with a bit of factional foundation, they can begin to mitigate the environmental disadvantages.
This is actually a form of selection—sorcerers who cannot conquer their environment are considered failures within the sorcerer evolutionary system.
In a sense, Ashe and his group, driving through the Reverse Golden Rain, have been spoiled, completely slipping through the cracks of the sorcerer evolutionary system. Without properly cultivating the ability to adapt to unfamiliar environments, they will eventually pay the price elsewhere.
Ashe and the others are aware of this, but they have no intention of remedying it—for now, they think they might as well dream big, perhaps they’ll never have to pay a price?
With this thought, Ashe twisted his finger ring to summon the Gospel, flipping to the page of the Sorcerer Handbook, which immediately popped up information.
“Growth Report for Death Maniac Swordswoman from May 3rd to May 9th”
“Swordsmanship Faction: Silver → Gold”
“Radiance Magic Faction: Silver → Silver”
“Water Faction: Silver → Silver”
“Mind Faction: Silver → Silver”
“Arcane Energy: Gold Virtual Wing → Gold One Feather”
“Cultivation Evaluation: Grade A!”
“As a result of receiving a Grade A evaluation, the Death Maniac Swordswoman has received an Occupational Enhancement from the Sorcerer Handbook: Frenzy Dancer → Genocide Gold Sorcerer!”
“Genocide Gold Sorcerer Occupational Traits: Increases damage to group Knowledge Creatures by 10%.”
“Assessment Mission ‘Frenzy Dance’ (10,000 Slashes) completed! Frenzy Dancer Occupational Traits permanently solidified!”
“Frenzy Dancer (Permanent Occupation): Attacking the same target increases attack speed by 2%, accumulating up to 5 times, with the effect immediately nullified upon switching targets.”
The main content of their Exploration in the Virtual Realm these past two days has been helping the Swordswoman complete her Assessment Mission. Fortunately, the Swordswoman acquired a new Miracle, ‘Blood Flower Water Moon’, which not only offers high instantaneous output but also allows stacking dozens of effective Slashes with each activation. If group creatures are gathered together, it can instantly execute hundreds of effective Slashes.
Even so, in the past two days, Ashe and his group raided the homes of several White Velocidragons, Fierce Wolf Dragons, and Migratory Bird Dragons. The Swordswoman’s new occupation, ‘Genocide Gold Sorcerer’, is clearly related to this.
The essence materials obtained solely from raiding and annihilating these creatures were enough to feed the Swordswoman’s ‘Vibration Sword’ and ‘Moon Silk’ spirit, as well as the Black-and-White Witch’s ‘Water Thread’ and ‘Claw’ spirit to Two Wings.
Ashe glanced at the Swordswoman’s interface and indeed, her occupation had changed to “Genocide Gold Sorcerer/Frenzy Dancer.” Her Swordsmanship faction had advanced from Silver to Gold, but the Cultivation Evaluation was only Grade A. It seemed that only during the promotion of arcane energy could one receive a Grade S evaluation.
This made sense; if Grade S were easy to achieve and triggered occupational assessment missions frequently, wouldn’t every Operator have a myriad of occupations later on?
Ashe even imagined an introduction: “Standing before you is the Storm’s Frenzy Dancer, the White Flame atop the grave, the lord of swords wielding the scepter of death, the Slaying Fish-Dragon Genocide… the Death Maniac Swordswoman with twenty-three occupations!”
While there were no surprises, the Swordswoman’s growth didn’t disappoint Ashe. However, when Ashe opened the Black-and-White Witch’s Growth Report, his good mood for the day ended.
“Growth Report for the Black-and-White Witch from May 3rd to May 9th”
“Mind Faction: Silver → Silver”
“Fist and Claw Faction: Gold → Gold”
“Time Faction: Silver → Silver”
“Water Faction: Silver → Silver”
“Arcane Energy: Gold One Feather → Gold Two Feathers”
“Cultivation Evaluation: Grade B!”
“Due to receiving a Grade B evaluation, the Black-and-White Witch has received an Occupational Enhancement from the Sorcerer Handbook: Genocide Follower!”
“Genocide Follower: Increases damage to group Knowledge Creatures by 5%.”
A Grade B evaluation?
This was the first time Ashe had received such an evaluation—it felt like a slap in his face, not just the Black-and-White Witch’s!
However, Ashe quickly cooled down, immersed in water. Previously, the Swordswoman had started from scratch, a blank slate, so her rapid advancement naturally led to higher evaluations. But the Witch had started with Two Wings, her main faction already at Gold Tier, and several sub-factions established. It was impossible to expect significant short-term advancements, not to mention she was under the “Curse of the Bronze Dragon,” unable to undergo regular training, limited only to entertainment each day.
If the Swordswoman hadn’t advanced her Swordsmanship faction to Gold Tier this week, she likely would have also received a Grade B.
This meant that starting next week, if the Operators didn’t achieve significant ‘arcane energy promotion’ or ‘faction advancement to Gold Tier,’ they would probably only receive a Grade B or even C evaluation.
Should I do a card draw? Ashe sighed as he looked over his savings.
These days, the income from spirits for Ashe and his team wasn’t much. They mostly gathered materials to feed the spirits. Additionally, after Ashe’s promotion to Two Wings, the recycling price for a One Wing spirit became 5 points, and for a Two Wing spirit, it was 10 points. After a week of accumulation, he had only 211 points, still a distance from the next first-time double bonus of 328.
As for this week’s cultivation strategy, it was business as usual: the Witch would continue with her entertainment, and the Swordswoman would continue with training… Ashe paused, remembering he had promised the Swordswoman some entertainment activities.
The Swordswoman had three Action Points, with two points required for each entertainment session. And since she had already played, Ashe wouldn’t be so heartless as to push her back into training.
Mainly because the effectiveness of training after entertainment wouldn’t be great, similar to playing games on your phone while in the restroom and then going back to work, your mind still lingering on how you could have played better.
So, it would be entertainment plus rest, letting the Swordswoman enjoy a bit of the rose-colored campus life.
So, which day should the Swordswoman take off?
Ashe thought about it and decided to schedule Rose Day for tomorrow, the 11th.
He initially wanted to set it for today, but today was a bit special. To avoid any accidents, it was better to let the Swordswoman continue her regular school and training schedule.
After setting the cultivation strategy, Ashe went back to his room to change clothes. When he came out, he found everyone gathered in the living room, and it didn’t look like they were just having breakfast.
“Ashe, you’re just in time,” Igor said, “Here’s a Single Choice Question for you.”
“Do you prefer this?” Igor handed over a potion bottle filled with a dreamlike pink liquid.
“Or do you prefer this?” Lise held up a blood-stained mace.
“Or maybe this?” Annan twirled a pair of silver handcuffs.
Handcuffs + mace + potion = ?
Ashe’s mind raced, quickly activating his spirit to summon a Substitute. The Substitute took a battle stance, ready to face any danger for Ashe—
“Direct any grievances at the Substitute, not me!”
Substitute: …
