A game interface he knew better than anything appeared in Noah's mind—the very center of the Wuthering Waves UI.
Yet right now, this central interface held only five simple function icons.
Convene, Quests, Mail, Exploration Modules, Inventory.
The instant he clearly saw the interface, Noah's breathing suddenly grew rapid.
Cheat!
It was a cheat!
As a traverser, his cheat had arrived!
With focused thought, a virtual mouse appeared in the game interface in his mind.
As a professional proxy player, the first thing Noah did was: open Mail.
There was only one message in the mailbox: [Reward] Wuthering Waves pre-registration and social media follow milestones achieved!
The attachments contained 20 Astrite Vortexes, 200 Astrite, Midnight Ranger Weapon Supply Chest, and 80,000 Shell Credits.
Noah clicked [Claim] without hesitation. The items from the mail instantly went into his inventory. With just a thought, he could take them out.
"Great—I've got money!"
Noah's heart burned with excitement. Shell Credits were the universal currency issued by Huanglong. These 80,000 Shell Credits undoubtedly solved his immediate urgent needs.
Money gives a man courage; without money, nothing is possible.
Suppressing the joy in his heart, Noah turned to the Convene function.
Two card pools appeared before him: [Character Permanent Convene], [Weapon Permanent Convene].
"How are there only two permanent pools? Whatever."
He opened the Character Permanent Convene. A line of small text appeared in Noah's view:
[Use Astrite Vortexes to perform draws in the Permanent Convene. If a character is obtained, immediately gain the corresponding character's resonance ability and combat experience.]
[Every 10 convenes guarantee a 4-star or higher item; at most 80 convenes guarantee a 5-star character.]
"Holy crap, what a cheat! It even brought the gacha system over—insane!"
Noah's heart surged with wild joy. He nearly couldn't hold back from shouting aloud. Forcing down his inner excitement, he controlled the mouse in his mind and clicked "Convene x10."
The permanent pool had five 5-star characters in total: Jianxin, Calcharo, Lingyang, Verina, Encore.
Aside from Verina, drawing any character would massively boost his combat ability.
Right now, Noah wasn't hoping for a 5-star—he'd be satisfied with any 4-star character, which would already make him no longer an ordinary person.
The convene interface flashed with light. Noah's heart rose to his throat. His body trembled slightly, eyes fixed on the screen, hardly daring to breathe.
Amid the surging sound of waves, a column of water leaped from the sea surface straight toward the sky. A trace of golden light reflected from within the water column, growing ever brighter.
"Holy shit—I got gold! Gold on the very first ten-pull!" Noah was so excited he nearly jumped up.
Which gold would it be?
As the convene animation ended, a scene played in Noah's mind.
Under a pitch-black sky, waves crashed layer upon layer. The view pulled closer toward distant dim mountains, finally settling on a reef.
Atop the reef, a black-haired youth slowly extended a hand. Cold sea wind brushed aside the hair over his brow, revealing a pair of brilliant golden eyes.
[Successfully convened — Rover (Spectro)!]
He actually drew the hidden version!
Seeing this, Noah could no longer contain his inner ecstasy—he nearly cheered aloud.
"Rover! The emperor of Solaris-3—I drew Rover!"
[Importing "Rover (Spectro)" resonance ability and combat experience. Estimated completion: 3 minutes…]
A massive flood of resonance ability and combat experience surged into Noah's brain like raging waves. His head felt as though it would explode. His vision went black, and he passed out.
(In tribute to the legendary fainting king.)
On the other side.
Taoyuan Vale, temporary meeting room—the atmosphere was exceptionally heavy.
In the simple room, a group of people sat in a circle.
Yangyang adjusted the blue beret on her head, tucking the feather-like ends of her hair behind her ear, and spoke to open the meeting:
"Based on the detection by Chixia and me, there are abnormal energy fluctuations in Cloud Ridge Valley. There is a high probability that an Etheric Sea will appear in the next few days, followed by the birth of a Tacet Field."
A Tacet Field—the birthplace of Tacet Discords. If a Tacet Field appeared in an area, that place would become extremely dangerous.
Hearing this news, the already furrowed brows in the room grew even darker.
"Really bad news."
The pink-haired woman at the head sighed—Taoqi, the person in charge of border defense affairs for Jinzhou's Engineers.
"Whatever. Compared to a Tacet Field, there is something more important worth discussing right now."
Taoqi set aside her usual lazy demeanor, looked around the room, her gaze solemn:
"According to observations, at dusk today, the blood-colored barrier enveloping the entire Jinzhou City completely vanished. Yet inside it was silent—no one was seen coming out."
Hearing this, everyone around couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath.
"The barrier is gone?"
Chixia's eyes widened as she asked urgently: "Has anyone entered Jinzhou? What's the situation in Jinzhou City now?"
Taoqi shook her head and said heavily: "The moment the barrier's disappearance was discovered, a Midnight Ranger unit quickly entered Jinzhou, but…"
She paused here, gently shook her head, and spoke the reality contrary to everyone's hopes: "No one returned."
"In other words, we should prepare for the worst."
For a moment, the temporary meeting room fell into silence—so quiet a pin drop could be heard.
"Jinzhou City cannot fall."
Yangyang lowered her head and exhaled deeply. When she raised it again, determination filled her eyes:
"I propose sending people into Jinzhou again to investigate the exact situation. My resonance ability can receive information through Aero. I am willing—"
"No."
Chixia was the first to refuse. She gripped Yangyang's hand tightly, nearly on the verge of tears from worry:
"Something this dangerous—you're not even from Jinzhou. Let me go instead."
Cough cough.
Taoqi gave a light cough, interrupting the two women: "Neither of you needs to go. There's a better way."
With that, Baizhi reached out and tapped a few times on her terminal. A holographic screen projected onto the wall of the temporary meeting room.
It was the projection of a drone.
"These are several drones Mortefi brought out from Jinzhou."
Baizhi's gaze swept over Chixia, lingered briefly on Yangyang, and finally settled on Taoqi and a mature, steady middle-aged man in a white hat:
"Tonight, I will train Taoqi and Mr. Yuanwu from the Jinzhou fist gym to operate the drones. Tomorrow, we will use the drones to scout the situation in Jinzhou City."
On the other side.
The aroma of food woke the starving Noah.
He sat up from the carpet, feeling a warm, powerful energy spreading from the back of his right hand throughout his entire body.
"You're awake?"
Jianxin handed Noah a bowl of golden and silver lotus seed soup, pulled over a chair to sit, her clear, pure gaze holding some curiosity.
"Just now, while I was teaching you to calm your mind, you suddenly started laughing loudly, muttering incomprehensible things like 'gold' and 'Rover,' then passed out."
"Sorry for troubling you, young Taoist priestess."
Noah scratched his head awkwardly, using big mouthfuls of food to cover his social death.
He had been too excited about drawing Rover—gesturing wildly. Being reminded of it now was inevitably embarrassing.
Jianxin smiled lightly, not dwelling on Noah's fainting. Instead, she pointed to the back of his right hand:
"Though it sounds unbelievable, congratulations on becoming a Resonator."
Hearing this, Noah's eating paused abruptly. He suddenly looked at the back of his right hand.
Five star-shaped black Tacet Marks quietly appeared there—as if they had always been, impossible to remove.
As he gazed at them, fragmented memories faintly surfaced in his mind.
Those were "Rover's" day-and-night grueling combat training, "Rover's" battles against various Tacet Discords on the edge of life and death.
Now, those techniques belonged to Noah—integrated into instinct, as natural as moving his own limbs.
In terms of martial prowess, he had completely inherited all of Rover's combat experience and resonance ability (Spectro).
And as the dragon-proud-heaven protagonist of Wuthering Waves, Rover's strength was unquestionable.
Thanks to the cheat from [Convene].
It was—too awesome!
Absolutely explosive!
Noah was overjoyed. He now felt terrifyingly strong.
"Thank you, young Taoist priestess, for helping me awaken my resonance ability. If you ever need help in the future, please feel free to ask." Noah said sincerely.
"Of course there is."
A trace of battle intent appeared on Jianxin's delicate face. A strand of white hair on her head swayed:
"Young hero Noah, I sense that the resonance ability you awakened is very powerful. How about we spar?"