The Witch's Amusement

After several revisions, Yaxiu input all of the Black and White Witch's data, and the Book of Gospel finally yielded a useful response: "Deducted 50 points." "Primary conclusion: Cultivate the fist and claw faction." "The learning efficiency of the time faction in reality is relatively low. The only location genuinely suited for cultivating the time faction is the Time Continent. Having your friend cultivate the fist and claw faction in reality to boost combat strength, while undertaking high-intensity adventures in the Void Realm, is the most cost-effective choice." "Prerequisites: 1. Your friend indeed possesses talent in the time faction (slightly doubtful); 2. Your friend indeed possesses an item providing a +15% boost to fist and claw faction cultivation in reality (rather doubtful); 3. Your friend can summon two special creatures of Two Wings combat strength to assist in Void Realm adventures (strongly suspecting your friend is lying; the ability to summon special creatures of the same tier in the Void Realm rarely appears among Two-Winged Sorcerers)." "A secondary conclusion may thus be drawn: Is there something seriously wrong in your friend's head?" This Book of Gospel had a surprisingly sharp tongue... Since the walkthrough guide put it that way, Yaxiu had no reason not to follow its directions—after all, he couldn't let fifty points go to waste. He equipped the Black and White Witch with the Training Gloves, used an advanced stamina potion and an advanced experience potion, and maxed out her three action points. Just then, Yaxiu suddenly remembered that the Witch seemed to have another option— Entertainment! Under the blessing of the Prince of Pleasure's Twenty-Sided Die, operators could also gain sorcery experience through entertainment. Yaxiu hadn't cared for this option before because the yield from entertainment was guaranteed to be lower than training, and it required gambling on luck. As a low-grade male user whose Weibo account was only ever used to retweet giveaway contests without ever winning a single prize, Yaxiu harbored no lingering expectations regarding his luck. Now, however, he realized that the twenty-sided die was tailored precisely for the Witch's circumstances. The Witch's trial class heavily penalized her learning efficiency, yet the pleasure sorcery experience rewarded by the twenty-sided die suffered no penalties at all. It only accepted bonuses, perfectly circumventing her negative status. Enlightenment struck Yaxiu. So that was it! Entertainment wasn't truly meant for recreation—it was a specialized form of training designed to evade debuffs! He had nearly misunderstood the game mechanics. Fortunately, he hadn't acted like a decent human being in the past and had never scheduled any entertainment for the Sword Princess, or else he would have taken a massive loss! Still, entertainment only occupied two action points. What should he arrange for the remaining one? Resting was out of the question, and training was terribly inefficient, so it seemed combat was the only viable choice. Under the training policy, the "Entertainment" option had changed. Simply put, a twenty-sided die now decorated the icon, making it look strikingly like the portal to an online casino. The Entertainment interface popped up with two categories of recreational activities: Specialized and All-Around. Specialized activities included things like "Fire Sorcery Faction - Melting Candles," "Water Sorcery Faction - Playing in the Pool," "Prophecy Faction - Hide-and-Seek," "Mind Faction - Playing House Alone," and "Truth Faction - Completing Test Papers." These activities only yielded sorcery experience for a specific faction, but the amount of experience was relatively high. All-Around activities included things like "Playing in the Mud," "Catching Beetles," "Cat's Cradle," and "Playing Soccer." These activities lacked specialized focus or involved multiple factions at once; they granted sorcery experience across several factions, but the amount of experience was lower. It looked so complicated that he almost felt like having the Witch just train instead. However, a mobile game was a mobile game, and it provided a thoughtful option for lazy-ass players like Yaxiu: "Random Game: Randomizes the entertainment activity. Grants experience in only one sorcery faction, but provides an additional 10% experience bonus." That was the one! "Activate the End Watcher's innate talent to register the Black and White Witch into the sorcerer manual?" Yaxiu paused, only then remembering that the sorcerer manual required an operator to be bound before their schedule could be arranged. The Sword Princess had undergone the same procedure. A thought suddenly popped into his mind: if he pulled a new operator in the future but the sorcerer manual had no remaining slots, could he clear out an old operator to make room for the new one? The thought vanished as quickly as it came. Yaxiu selected "Confirm." "Sword Princess Training Policy: Training, Training, Combat" "Witch Training Policy: Entertainment (Random Game - Fist and Claw Experience), Combat" Having finalized the training policies for the Witch and the Sword Princess for this week, Yaxiu closed the Book of Gospel. At that moment, the butler youth happened to finish his cigarette. Snuffing the butt out against his palm, he stood up and said, "The young mistress has two demands for all of you." Everyone looked up at him. "First, you are forbidden from leaving the house for the time being." "Second, you are temporarily forbidden from engaging in any cultivation of sorcery factions." Banjie paused. "At the very, very most, you may read reference books on sorcery factions, but the young mistress hopes you will enjoy yourselves as much as possible and minimize serious work." Yaxiu blinked in bewilderment. There was such a wonderful deal? Igola, on the other hand, guessed something. "To prevent our actions from 'contaminating' our evaluations?" "Correct," Banjie explained patiently. "Your learning efficiency will be recorded by the Book of Gospel. The more diligently you study, the deeper the Book of Gospel's comprehension of you becomes, which will work heavily against your chances of becoming Echoers. On the contrary, the lazier you are, the higher the Book of Gospel will tend to overestimate you. After all, you have the backing of Two Wings sorcery power on your resumes. When it discovers that you usually don't put in much effort, the Book of Gospel will naturally elevate its assessment of your talent." Understood. Wasn't that just like those academic phonies who pretend they never study all day, but in fact finish the whole semester's syllabus before school even starts just to look effortless and make everyone overestimate their genius? Unlike Igola and Harvey, who were eager to advance, Yaxiu was overjoyed. Yay, everyone was lying flat with him now! "Lisi, you can play to your heart's content during this period... Why don't you look very happy?" Lisi, who was looking in the mirror, appeared deeply conflicted (///￣皿￣). "Where do you see that I'm unhappy? I'm thrilled, Daddy!" "At least put on a happy face to fool me!" Banjie said, "Speaking of which, I haven't introduced you to the various facilities in the house yet. We have a library, a swimming pool, a shooting range, an audiovisual entertainment room, a simulation game room, and a novelty game room. Gun sorcerers are forbidden from entering the shooting range, water sorcerers are likewise barred from the swimming pool, and illusion sorcerers are not permitted inside the simulation game room. Please follow me..." "I'm not interested," Harvey said, standing up. "I'm heading back to my room. Please buy me a crate of cat grass." Banjie paused slightly. "A crate? Are you sure?" "What grass? A vegetable?" Yaxiu asked out of curiosity. "Does Harvey look like a good little boy who eats his vegetables? He's more likely to eat corpse beetles," Igola muttered. "There are only two possibilities when he actively asks for something: either it's related to corpses, or..." "Cat grass is a very niche category of tobacco." Banjie placed heavy emphasis on the word "niche." Naturally, everyone took the hint—when other people got points, they asked about their development path or whether their future girlfriend had been born yet, but Harvey was pragmatic enough to ask if there was a substitute for moon sugar here! Watching Harvey retreat to his room alone, Yaxiu felt rather bewildered. "Does the necromancy faction increase poison resistance? Even if he has poison resistance, consuming hallucinogens like that ought to severely impair his sanity, shouldn't it?" "Perhaps impairing his sanity is exactly what he wants." Igola glanced at Yaxiu. "Though the starry sky is magnificent, reaching out with both hands will never touch it. Though the gutter is filthy, lying down offers a place to rest in peace." "Not everyone wants to stay clearheaded." Yaxiu said, "Isn't this precisely when you, a mind sorcerer, should step up? Psychological therapy is right down your alley! Harvey is on our side now, after all. Can't you help him return to normal?" "First of all, according to the Blood Moon's standards of judgment, Harvey is perfectly normal right now," Igola said coolly. "Moon sugar is already one of the classic medications prescribed by psychotherapists. If you go in for therapy, nine out of ten will recommend you take moon sugar, and the last one will recommend you hit the black market to buy some harder dancing powder." "Second, do you honestly think I still have the spare energy to handle someone else's psychological issues?" The Swindler met the cult leader's gaze and gave a soft sigh. "Yaxiu, you're stronger than any of us." Yaxiu froze, then shook his head. "I just have experience, that's all."