"...Master Diviner, are you sure this thing wasn't just fabricated?"
"I recall seeing it recorded in the ancient texts. The archives of the Divination Commission have a long history; there is indeed a tiny possibility that such a spirit, born from the very fortune of literature, could come into existence. And if I'm not mistaken, this golden carp has the potential to transform into a dragon. A single strike from it can even knock a behemoth unconscious."
"..." Chen Li still couldn't believe that a fish that had suddenly appeared in the archives actually had a corresponding record.
Emmm... though it's not a certainty. It could be the work of a Fictional Historian.
I am a Fictional Historian, and this is history.jpg
But regardless, Chen Li had now witnessed the power of this Elation Die.
If there was no solution, it could fabricate one for you, and then solve your problem.
It was unclear who might get hurt in the process, but the user definitely wouldn't be.
"Alright, this seat has matters to discuss with the General. You two continue eating. Remember to go back and watch over the archives when you're done," Fu Xuan said, rising hastily. After speaking to Chen Li and Qingque, she departed directly.
In the pot in front of the two of them, there were still dozens of plump fish fillets.
"I remember the Master Diviner saying that if one eats this kind of literary fortune carp, they'll enter a state of 'literary fortune,' and taking civil service exams during this time will be exceptionally smooth... It seems our Master Diviner hasn't given up on her ambition for the General's seat," Qingque said with a shrug of her shoulders.
That's right, Chen Li and she had stewed the fish.
It was surprisingly delicious.
Moreover, Chen Li felt that the enhancement he gained from eating the golden carp was no less than what he got from eating the companion Honkai beast of the second Herrscher.
This Elation Die really was something else.
The premise was to ensure you had enough Elation Points, or that your own luck was genuinely good.
"Speaking of which, if you were given a chance to defy fate and change your life, Qingque..."
"Not interested." Qingque cut Chen Li off before he could even finish his sentence.
"Alright, that's very in character for you. Let me rephrase it. Suppose you were given a chance to become a Supreme Master of Celestial Jade..." Chen Li paused mid-sentence when he saw Qingque looking at him expectantly, and then continued.
"Are you willing to bet on it?" Chen Li took out the [Elation's 20-Sided Die].
"If I roll this die, can it really make me a Supreme Master of Celestial Jade?"
"I'm just saying 'suppose'."
"If I win the bet, I'll become a Supreme Master. What if I lose?"
"You'll be beaten to your knees with a single punch and dragged away as a slave."
"Ugh, let's just forget it." Qingque shivered upon hearing the penalty.
It sounded terrifying.
"I think as long as I'm willing to work hard, I can become a Supreme Master of Celestial Jade on my own," Qingque said, convincing herself.
"I thought you'd slam the table and shout, 'This is a gamble!' and then accept it with gusto."
"You just don't get it. In this life, just being alive is enough. I have a stable job and plenty of time to slack off, what more could I be dissatisfied with? As long as I free up more time to play tiles, my skills will improve sooner or later," Qingque said with a wave of her hand.
Are you kidding? You think I, Qingque, am really the type to shout 'This is a gamble!' and then charge in headfirst?
"Since you have such self-control, I'll lend you this Curio for a while. Remember, when you run into trouble, you can roll this die. If the number is 10 or less, you'll become even unluckier. But if it's greater than 10, you'll be able to solve the problem, though the process might be a bit absurd," Chen Li temporarily lent the usage rights of the die to Qingque.
"Like how the Master Diviner got slapped by the tail of that fish that appeared out of nowhere?"
"Yes."
"Alright, I'll use it then. Hey, I have an idea. What if I use this Curio while I'm playing tiles?" A flash of inspiration struck Qingque.
"You can give it a try. The Master Diviner has gone to see General Jing Yuan anyway, so she won't be back to catch you any time soon. I'll keep watch for you in the archives."
"You got it, thanks for the trouble." Qingque excitedly took the die and ran out of the archives.
Friends, this is a gamble!
After finishing the golden carp that had been manifested by the Elation Die, Chen Li chose to make his own escape.
Someone would probably clean up the dishes... right?
---o---
Novice Quest (V)
Forge 15 Curios (18/15)
Forge 1 1-Star Curio (2/1)
Complete 10 Miracle Check-ins (7/10)
Increase Profession Level to LV4 (3/4)
Increase Fame to LV3 (2/3)
"Sigh, where am I supposed to find so many miracles to check-in at? The quest is stuck again," Chen Li sighed, slumping in the exact same slacking position as Qingque.
Chen Li would rather the fifth novice quest asked him to forge three 1-Star Curios than have to complete this Miracle Check-in task.
Forging a 1-Star Curio just required stuffing enough Miracle Crystals into it, but a Miracle Check-in involved many more considerations.
"Ultimately, I still have to see if there's any potential in other worlds," Chen Li said, fiddling with the Merit Coin in his hand while reviewing his currently available Miracle Commissions.
Helping Vita backstab 'Sa' had a high probability of yielding a Miracle Card, but that unlucky kid hadn't even returned to the city yet.
How long are you going to sleep? Until the series finale?
Giving Hatsune Miku her giant leek didn't seem very likely to create a miracle.
Matou Zouken's quest was still in a state of lost contact. Who knew if he had cultivated a worm with the [Devolution] Entry yet. Chen Li was very interested in that world's Holy Grail. Although it was contaminated by the black mud, if he could purify it, he might be able to fish out a Miracle Card.
As for the Headless Rider's head, Chen Li currently had no leads.
"Aria... Although I feel like it'd be hard to find a quickly achievable miracle in the world of Akame ga Kill!, the Teigu and Danger Beasts of that world seem very suitable for me," Chen Li mused, rubbing his chin.
In a world of only blood and blades, the Teigu, which possessed magic-like abilities, naturally held a vital position. Their Entries, refined by time and fate, would surely be all the more brilliant.
And Danger Beasts were one of the materials used to forge Teigu. Different Danger Beasts possessed different abilities. You could think of them as a type of magical beast, and he heard they were quite delicious—perfect for a Chen Li who had acquired [Gourmet Cells].
"I choose you!"
Although Chen Li could also target the Herrschers of the Honkai Impact 3rd world, as the saying goes, one should pick the softest persimmon to pinch.
Compared to Herrschers, Danger Beasts and Teigu users were a bit easier to handle.
[You there?] Chen Li began with his usual opening line.
However, he deliberately redacted a large portion of the information about the Curio Forger that he was sending to Aria.
Next, he would just wait for her to receive the information, then swindle her completely, travel to her world, beat her to her knees with a single punch, and then give her a big surprise with the Curio she wanted.
Creak!
While Chen Li was waiting, a dejected Qingque pushed open the archives' door. She walked listlessly over to Chen Li's side, and upon seeing him occupying her spot, she walked even more dejectedly to a nearby corner, hugged her knees, and slowly squatted down.
"Qingque, what's wrong? Didn't you take the Elation Die to go play tiles?"
"Friend, I lost in utter devastation," Qingque said with a mournful face.
"What happened?"
"I figured that since I could use this Curio when I encounter trouble or a crisis, I designated 'being unable to win the hand' as the trouble and used the Curio."
"Oh, and how did that work out?"
"The first time, I rolled a 13. I ended up winning with a Pure Straight Flush!" Even though she was in a bad mood, Qingque's eyes still lit up when she talked about it.
"And then?"
"And then on the second hand, I rolled a 1."
"Whoa, a very niche number. What was the result?"
"The result was that I dealt into three winning hands at once, and all three of them had Thirteen Orphans! It's too ridiculous! I can't accept it!" Qingque pounded the table in anger.
Was that logical? It was not logical!
"You didn't ask me for help, and you managed to walk back in one piece, so the problem probably wasn't too big, right?" Chen Li said, hesitating slightly.
"Oh, after they took all the Jade Abaci I had, they didn't pursue it further. We're all good friends, after all. But they demanded I let them post the video of this tile game on a video-sharing site. So, while I didn't have to pay any more money, I have been permanently nailed to the Pillar of Shame of Celestial Jade," Qingque said, on the verge of tears.
"Ah, this..." For a moment, Chen Li didn't know how to comfort her.
"Here's your die back. I'm never using it again," Qingque said with firm resolution, tossing the pink die back to Chen Li.
"Are you sure you'll never use it again? If you were to consider 'being permanently nailed to the Pillar of Shame of Celestial Jade' as your new trouble, using this die might just let you stage an epic comeback, you know," Chen Li said, tossing the die in his hand, a slight smile playing on his lips.
Chen Li guaranteed that this smile was because tossing the die passively made one feel happy, and definitely not because he was enjoying Qingque's miserable state.
"This..." Qingque looked hesitant.
"Just give it a try. After all, things can't possibly get any worse," Chen Li squatted down in front of Qingque and whispered.
Based on his own experience and Qingque's situation, the higher the roll was above 10, the luckier one would be in resolving the trouble.
The lower the roll was below 10, the more unluckily one would become entangled in it.
The exact degree of luck or misfortune also depended on the scale of the current trouble.
For a small problem, it couldn't get that much worse.
"This is a gamble!" Qingque looked at the pink die in front of her and, in the end, couldn't resist snatching it.
As Qingque tossed the die into the air, the moment it landed, her heart felt as if it had been slammed heavily.
[6]
"Aaargh!" Qingque let out a wail of anguish.
She had lost, utterly and completely, once again.
"Don't worry so much. As your friend, how could I possibly harm you?" Just as Qingque was despairing, Chen Li's hand gently rested on her head, like a ray of light piercing into a dim space.
Then, under Qingque's hopeful gaze, Chen Li's fingers lightly nudged the die.
The die spun once more. This time, it stopped on another number.
[11]
"You can manually increase the number?" Qingque was overjoyed.
"I had only accumulated 5 Elation Points, and I just used them all on you. In other words, as long as you don't roll a number lower than 3, I can guarantee you'll solve your current problem."
"Huh? Didn't you say you only had 5 points? Why is the limit 3?"
"It was, but because I personally witnessed your amusing spectacle just now, I gained another three points," Chen Li said with a heartless laugh.
"What if I had rolled a 1?"
"Don't worry, I have a solution for that too. Since it was my unethical behavior that made you roll the die again, even if you had rolled a 1, suffered a critical failure, and the entire Xianzhou Alliance found out about you dealing into three Thirteen Orphans, I could still smooth over the turmoil with [Approbation of Sublime Morality]. We'd just pretend this roll never happened," Chen Li said with a shrug.
This was the real reason Chen Li had goaded Qingque—to put himself in an "unethical" position.
If watching drama could be classified into different types, even different alignments, then Chen Li was definitely Lawful Good.
But fortunately, the matter of "Qingque being nailed to the Pillar of Shame of Celestial Jade" was still not a huge problem, which was why he could make that guarantee.
Even though they were both Curios, the 1-Star [Elation's 20-Sided Die] definitely had a higher priority than the [Scales of Merit], but Chen Li had over a hundred thousand Merit Coins in his hand.
There was no need to be frugal with Elation Points; the cap was only 10, after all.
Perhaps the die just wanted Chen Li to live in the moment and enjoy life.
That was very logical.
"Although I don't know how you accumulate Elation Points, they must be very precious. Friend, I'm sorry for causing you trouble." Qingque tightly gripped the hand Chen Li had used to pat her head, moved beyond words.
"Er, it's not quite to that extent."
"No, you don't understand! If I was really and truly nailed to the Pillar of Shame of Celestial Jade, a whole half of my life would be missing!"
"Alright, alright." Seeing that his Elation Points had increased by another three, reaching a total of 6, Chen Li silently accepted Qingque's gratitude.
He truly hadn't expected this to count as Elation.
"This counts as a vivid life lesson, right? In any case, stop thinking about high-stakes gambling all the time. A gambler only has two outcomes."
"Which two outcomes?" Although she was still more concerned about how the Elation Die was going to get her off the Pillar of Shame, Qingque still listened patiently to Chen Li.
"Everything, or nothing at all."
"...Isn't that still a gamble?"
"It is. Now that I'm done advising you, it's time for me to go advise another gambler," Chen Li said, tossing the Elation Die in his hand, a broader smile spreading across his face.
Chen Li once again guaranteed that he was smiling because tossing the die inherently made him happy, and not because he was thinking about what might happen to Aventurine in the future.
He admitted that Aventurine's luck in gambling was unparalleled, his good fortune shaking the heavens. But Chen Li was very much looking forward to what would happen when that luck encountered an Elation Die that could potentially negate all attributes of fortune.