"System, settle the gains."
After a crackling flash, the screen displayed Aedric's final haul from this run: 30,000 luck points.
"Not bad." Aedric nodded, then shook his head with some regret. "Too bad that space warship was untouchable — otherwise the payout would've been tens of times higher."
"Heh, good thing you know when to hold back," the System chuckled. "Some people watch too much Marvel or DC and think every cosmic warship exists for protagonists to show off in front of."
"That ship is a top-tier vessel built by the Predator-like civilization using the combined resources and tech of countless worlds — it could easily suppress the entire Earth."
"At minimum you'd need a high-level innate-grade being plus top-tier artifact equipment to try to go toe-to-toe."
"Are there post-natal (later-born) beings who even tried that?" Aedric asked in disbelief. "They didn't see the movies? How did those people end up?"
"Most of them were smashed to pulp," the System replied casually. "A few luckier ones were crippled — the mission failed and they were stuck living miserably in that world."
"Greed and arrogance — they're poison that kills without a trace," Aedric murmured.
"It's not weakness or ignorance that kills you, it's arrogance," he repeated quietly — a line from The Three-Body Problem — and felt his scalp prickle. Good thing he'd been cautious and kept his distance.
"Yeah, otherwise I'd be out finding the next contractor right now," the System said lightly. "Better to be cautious — knowing when to advance and when to retreat keeps you alive. Looks like we can cooperate for a long time."
"I spit on that," Aedric scoffed. "You black crow mouth — I'll live longer than you."
"Heh." The System laughed lightly. "Need to redeem anything?"
"Yes." Aedric first took out all the Predator equipment and said, "I need the operation manuals, scale them to my build, and make them usable across worlds."
A flash of white light, and 5,000 luck points were deducted.
After he absorbed the operation info for the gear, he took out two Predator warrior corpses. "I want the technical dossier on how different species' DNA is perfectly fused."
Another white flash, the two corpses vanished and 3,000 luck points were spent — a detailed explanation of DNA-fusion tech was uploaded straight into Aedric's mind.
"Nice — that's a set." He savored the god-tier genetic knowledge, then laid out a lump of Valyrian-steel-like metal, a dragon crystal, and his Zhenwu sword. "Use the blade's sharpness as base, fuse in the Valyrian-steel's toughness and anti-magic properties, and infuse the dragon crystal's cold energy."
That crystal wasn't ordinary — it was the piece taken from the Night King, buried within him for nearly ten thousand years, full of bottomless ice energy.
At first Aedric planned to fuse Zhenwu with the Blackfyre Sword, but first, he liked Blackfyre and didn't want it to vanish. Second, the Zhenwu sword was named for the "Zhenwu Great Emperor" — a water deity — and putting fire into it would feel thematically awkward. So after thinking it over, he decided to infuse the Zhenwu blade with the Night King's ice, fitting the northern water aspect.
A white light flashed: the Night King crystal and the Valyrian ingot disappeared. The Zhenwu sword's blade developed the water-wave patterns of Valyrian steel together with black-obsidian speckles from the dragon crystal. After he channeled inner-alchemical qi into it, the blade exuded a pale-blue chill; the breath that left Aedric's lips even frosted in the air.
Looking at this upgraded Zhenwu sword — razor-sharp, tough and magic-breaking, and radiating condensed ice — Aedric was extremely satisfied. "Those 2,000 points were worth it. Perfect fusion. Awesome."
"What's the next world? Don't tell me it's another heroine-run?" he asked.
Having tasted the benefit of foreknowledge and now with more resources in hand, Aedric decided he wouldn't skimp the extra thousand luck points this time. If he hadn't prepared earlier, even if he'd handled the pyramid's Predators and Xenomorphs, the mothership might still have noticed — who knew what would happen then.
"Don't worry," the System said with a chuckle. "This one's 100% straight male."
It deducted 1,000 points and transmitted the next-world briefing.
"'Myth — Yi Xiaochuan'?" An image of a slacker carefree young man popped into Aedric's mind. He muttered to himself in surprise: "So even this selfish, self-centered guy chose to give up the protagonist aura? Let's see what his conditions are."
Yi Xiaochuan's requests were:
No longer endure the thousand-year wait — Apparently enduring two thousand years was unbearable. He'd previously had no choice; now he didn't want to be that aged monster anymore. Fine — Aedric had no family to reunite with and didn't need that immortality pill anyway. Traversing worlds already counts as an odd kind of immortality; taking such a potion would be redundant.
Be with Yu Shu forever — Alright. Aedric admitted he liked that beauty too; if he hadn't been told he'd likely do the same.
Don't betray Su-Su again — Okay, you've still got some conscience.
Don't betray Gao Yao — …
When he saw the name "Gao Yao," an image flashed in Aedric's head: a man screaming hoarsely, "I will climb step by step to the top — I will become Zhao Gao!" Back when Aedric first watched that series he'd been thunderstruck; he couldn't calm down for a while.
In youth he'd liked Yi Xiaochuan's uncaring swagger; grown older, he'd realized everyone has some Zhao-Gao inside them. Including Aedric himself. Not just the indignities of working for capital; in the last world, if the Predator mothership hadn't forced his hand, he wouldn't have killed everyone except the heroine to end the matter fast and avoid complications. Killing others for his own interest — how different is that from Gao Yao trampling people to avoid being bullied? There's no real difference; we're the same kind of person.
Too bad the System only picks protagonists. If it didn't, Aedric would have loved to take Yi Xiaochuan's place and give him a thrashing. Oh, and that Liu Bang guy — he'd better die too! As for what he might achieve later — laughable. Aedric had toppled emperors before; another one wouldn't matter.
After thinking it through and confirming nothing was missing, Aedric had the System send him into the target world.
About seventy thousand luck points remained. Finish this world, and he'd be close to buying a pre-natal (innate) cultivation method.
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