Gift Rewards

Both Feili and Weixi noticed that Yaxiu's expression had suddenly grown very strange. If it could be illustrated with a pie chart, it would probably be 30% confusion, 30% anger, 30% amusement, and an additional 10% disdain. Yaxiu's current mood was like seeing Harvey behaving with prim, upright manners, or hearing Igola offer a sincere, heartfelt apology. To sum it up in one sentence: *Still trying to act in front of me, aren't you, brat?* Yaxiu was no longer the clueless player he once was. Since the Sword Princess of Dead Frenzy, the Black and White Witch, and Youlan Weise were all real living people, this so-called "Search Event" was essentially picking lucky sorcerers to become his team members or tools. Moreover, it was compulsory—the targets couldn't refuse even if they wanted to. Once drawn by Yaxiu, they would instantly become operators, hardly any different from a slave market. Yaxiu could almost see the "Demon Maid," "Crow Cull," and "Chaos Diva" standing imprisoned inside a display case. Now, as long as he spent enough source crystals, he could bring one home to make him happy. *And you still pretend to be a game system? You're obviously a forced labor system!* However, Yaxiu harbored no resentment. After all, he wasn't the one doing the labor. It was just that there had been nothing yesterday, yet a Search Event had suddenly appeared now. This meant the search system couldn't completely ignore distance and shanghai anyone it pleased. It at least required Yaxiu to trigger the local talent market before it could poach fine-looking talent in the vicinity into the card pool for free. Yet while the system got its card pool for free, Yaxiu had to spend hard currency—source crystals—to pull operators! He had already learned that source crystals weren't merely resources for gacha pulls; they were vital resources capable of driving gods! Take the Dream-Awakening God as an example. A single source crystal could allow her to cast "Delayed Dream Awakening" once, an effect that enabled Sanctuary sorcerers to trigger the Colorless Dream in the Distant Sky Realm and thus ascend Ruby Mountain. While one couldn't equate them so crudely, one source crystal truly could grant a Sanctuary sorcerer a shot at becoming a Legendary sorcerer! Three source crystals for a single pull—if he could pull an operator, that was one thing, but if he drew a consolation prize like a stamina potion, Yaxiu felt like he had lost three Legendary sorcerers! Yet even if it was a loss, Yaxiu still had to pull. Source crystals were undoubtedly of immense strategic value, but for Yaxiu, who possessed no god, they were at best the icing on the cake. Currently, the only way he could use source crystals was by letting his sorcery spirits absorb their energy to cast spells, freeing him from providing sorcery mana himself. However, Yaxiu was hardly short on mana. The three secret venoms—Golden Fish, Colorful Tail, and Colorless Dream—could not only convert all his mana into sword-colored mana, but that sword-colored mana could also elevate his sorcery spirits' power to Four-Wing. Substituting source crystals would actually lower his combat capability. Even if Yaxiu worried about a desperate scenario where his mana ran dry, keeping just one source crystal was enough—the energy contained within one crystal was enough to work all his sorcery spirits to death with plenty to spare. If Yaxiu stepped into the realm of gods and commanded one, perhaps he truly could discard the search system entirely and hoard source crystals every day. But having only just entered the Legendary realm, rather than drowning while clutching a hoard of source crystals, he would be better off converting this wealth into another form that could continue accompanying him. Alternatively, if Yaxiu returned to Gospel right now, he probably wouldn't need to consider recruiting new operators either. Though he had thought about recruiting new operators to ease the tense atmosphere within the team, after serious reflection, Yaxiu suppressed that escapist urge. More teammates were always welcome, but the Sword Princess strongly opposed newcomers joining the group. Her ideal team was a small boat in the Knowledge Sea with only her and Yaxiu; the Witch hadn't voiced it, but she merely wished Yaxiu could have more help, and if given a real choice, she wouldn't want newcomers either. Even Yaxiu himself felt their current team was sufficient for braving the Void Realm. Truth be told, he believed their team composition in the Distant Sky Realm had been the best: the Sword Princess served as close-range burst damage, the Witch as mid-to-close-range crowd control, Weise was the solver who could crack any puzzle, and he was the long-range tactical support providing aid, defense, and healing. Now, as long as Yaxiu returned to Senluo and found a way to rescue the Silver Lantern God from the Abyssal Darkness, the team would be virtually complete again. If Yaxiu returned to Gospel, where everyone could cultivate peacefully, there would naturally be no urgent need to boost their combat power. At that point, even if just to consider the feelings of the Sword Princess and the Witch, he would be willing to stop searching for new operators. Yet now, Yaxiu was dragged into the Country of Stars and urgently needed trustworthy tools to share the burden. This Search Event perfectly filled the niche of a talent market. It seized upon Yaxiu's pain points, deconstructed his needs from the foundational logic, and delivered a multi-pronged assault, forging a closed-loop ecosystem where he had no choice but to pull. Yaxiu looked over the list of new operators. First, he immediately recognized who "Crow Cull" was—apart from Tamashi, there wasn't another living Crow Cull left in the entire world. Only, Tamashi wasn't even a sorcerer; could he really be pulled? Furthermore, if Tamashi wasn't on Ruby Mountain, then even if Yaxiu pulled him, it would be meaningless. Could he really abduct Tamashi into Ruby Mountain? As for the name "Chaos Diva," Yaxiu's first reaction was the Sword Princess, since she could sing too. But it was impossible to pull two Sonia Viers, so this diva was likely someone Yaxiu didn't know. On the other hand, "Demon Maid"... Yaxiu glanced sideways at the soft, adorable, golden-haired horned girl beside him, who looked just like a little lamb. He thought to himself that the Search Event seemed to know it had been seen through and didn't bother pretending anymore. Who else could this "Demon Maid" be besides Feili? Though he had no real basis for it, he had a strong premonition that he would definitely pull the "Demon Maid." First, through their cooperation in this life-and-death ordeal, he and Feili had built a good rapport. Second, once Feili became his operator, he wouldn't need to worry about her using the demon's superior ecological status to coerce or command him. The more Yaxiu thought about it, the better it seemed. He felt that *Aurora's Sorcerer Handbook* was finally doing something decent for once. The Black and White Witch he pulled before and Youlan Weise he pulled last time had initially belonged to opposing factions. If Yaxiu hadn't relied on his superb leadership skills to sway both operators, the team would probably be a foul mess full of traitors by now. Only the Sword Princess had been gentle from the very beginning, harboring no ill intent. When he first learned the true identities of Youlan Weise and the Black and White Witch, Yaxiu had almost believed the search system could only hunt for bad women. The presence of a soft, adorable tool in the card pool this time proved it had just been a matter of luck before. Yaxiu was finally going to welcome a truly obedient operator! Then, the card pool also featured limited items: "Ruby Chains" and "Hunters List"; and limited resources: "Flowing Gold Stream" and "Destiny Q&A Hut." Yaxiu didn't know what the "Ruby Chains" were. "Hunters List" sounded related to Ruby Mountain's sorcerer roster system, while "Flowing Gold Stream" and "Destiny Q&A Hut" left him somewhat baffled. Weren't these resource nodes in the Void Realm? Those could be pulled too? Yaxiu reckoned these were resources intended for a Kingdom of Heaven, much like the wishing pool in the Thousand Wishes Kingdom of Heaven. He had heard before that resources in a Kingdom of Heaven were all stolen from the Void Realm, though he hadn't felt the reality of it much back then. Now, seeing that the search system had actually stolen the Flowing Gold Stream and the Destiny Q&A Hut, and recalling that the astral bodies of Stars and the All-Stars were actually the canopy of Hell, he wondered whether the Void Realm had originally been overflowing with resources, and was now merely an era in decline after being practically picked clean. Was Ruby Mountain so barren because it had been stripped bare by thieves? In contrast, Yaxiu didn't care much about the attires he had once been so excited about. If tonight's date went well, he could even help the Sword Princess change her clothes in person—why would he need to roll for them? What truly displeased Yaxiu was that the attire pool actually included one for Youlan Weise. How many more times did this damn system intend to remind him that Weise was dead? "Mr. Heath..." "Just call me Yaxiu." Yaxiu looked at his new operator with an amiable smile. "I'll call you maid—ah no, Feili." *Do I look like a maid?* Feili looked down at herself, wondering if she looked too rustic. She asked, "Um... are you not going to kill this evil woman anymore?" "No, wait a moment. Let me see if there are any items that can make her beg for death." "You yourself are an instrument of torture I can hardly bear," Weixi said languidly. "I hate making eye contact with men the most. Why don't you look into my eyes for a few minutes and make me suffer?" "A soul demigod can brainwash someone with just a look? I'll remember that lesson." Yaxiu opened the procurement center, feeling a bit sullen—his points weren't enough to buy the 328-point source crystal pack. Back in Senluo, in order to let the Silver Lantern hold out for a few more years without burning herself out and dispersing into smoke, he had exhausted his inventory to buy a 328-point source crystal pack, leaving almost all his source crystals with her as spares. Points could basically only be obtained by Yaxiu feeding sorcery spirits into the system. Right now, he had only a little over two hundred points left, enough to buy at most one bag of source crystals, totaling forty crystals. Adding the ones from the past two days of daily check-ins, he had forty-two crystals in total, enough for fourteen pulls. *Still, being broke leaves me no choice...* Just as he was thinking this, Yaxiu suddenly noticed a small red dot on an icon in the upper left corner that resembled "Mail." He clicked it and found it was a gift reward: [Respected Operator] [Thank you for your understanding and support of the *Sorcerer Manual* over the past half year! Your 'Ten-Pull Search Ticket' and 'Random Attire Ticket' have been issued. Please collect them in time.] [Attachments: 'Ten-Pull Search Ticket' and 'Attire Big Bundle'] [*Sorcerer Manual* Operations Team (Scheduled to send after half a year)] *There's even an Operations Team?* Yaxiu scratched his head and checked the attachments first. The Ten-Pull Ticket went without saying. The description of the Attire Big Bundle read: *"Remnant attires of operators, specially retrieved from the warehouse by the Operations Team as a gift, representing the Operations Team's recognition of the player."* This description was almost embarrassingly shabby. Yet when he opened it, Yaxiu's eyes lit up: [Mobile Catastrophe · Observer] [Life-Reaping Sword Demon · Sword Princess] [Fallen Nation Princess · Witch] [Evil Mirror Master · Weise] Every attire featured dark, cold, ash-gray tones. Combined with the cold, cruel expressions on everyone's character illustrations, it struck Yaxiu's aesthetic tastes quite well. The Sword Princess had turned cruel, the Witch had gone mad, Weise had become a cold, callous tyrant surrounded by evil sorcerers, and he had turned into a madman setting the world ablaze... The designs of these character illustrations were actually pretty cool. Still, he would have preferred to draw everyone's bridal sets. However, Yaxiu found it a bit strange: as good as these attires looked, they offered no stat bonuses whatsoever, making them even worse than the ones he had pulled before! Did the system want them to wear these attires, or did it not? Yaxiu opened the search interface, took a deep breath, and selected search! [Confirm consumption of 42 source crystals and a Ten-Pull Search Ticket to perform 24 searches?] [Confirm!] First came fourteen white flashes wasting Yaxiu's source crystals: stamina potions, experience potions, and career potions. Then came seven purple flashes: two bottles of sorcery spirit delight potion, two bottles of Pure Spiritual Light Special Drink, and three bottles of Ruby Essence. Finally, three golden lights burst forth! "Ruby Chains"! "Dark Silver Lantern · Youlan Weise"! And... "Demon Maid"!