"Is this one enough?"
"Theoretically, this is enough. But if you're willing to offer more, I won't object," Chen Li said, holding the blood-stained chainsaw with the [God Slaying] Entry.
"In that case, you should take a little more. Otherwise, I'd feel bad," Yurine said after a moment's thought.
The reason she said this was because, in her eyes, the chainsaw was just an ordinary tool. It was just that she often used it to chop up Jashin-chan whenever the evil god was courting death. Nothing more.
"How about this, then? In the future, if Jashin-chan makes a mistake..." Chen Li deliberated for a moment before looking over at Jashin-chan.
Jashin-chan froze, then shot him a thumbs-up.
What a brother! We've known each other for less than an hour, but what a brother!
The next thing he was going to say was surely: If Jashin-chan makes a mistake in the future, try not to punish her, right?
Chen Li returned a reassuring smile, then continued, "...then could you please try to use the same weapon to cut her?"
"Huh?" Jashin-chan was frozen solid on the spot.
Bro, you're not sticking to the script!
"Why?" Yurine voiced the question on Jashin-chan's mind.
"As a Curio Forger, I need to use Entries to forge Curios. For example, adding an [Eternal] Entry can make an item regenerate forever. Since Jashin-chan is a genuine evil god, repeatedly cutting her with the same weapon will generate a [God Slaying] Entry. Like this one," Chen Li explained, holding up the chainsaw.
"I see. So the materials for your Curios aren't ordinary objects, but the 'experiences' an item has gone through, correct?" Yurine nodded thoughtfully.
"Something like that. But the problem with this chainsaw is that its Entry isn't bright enough. That means I'd have to spend time strengthening it before forging, which is a hassle," Chen Li said.
"Then just give the chainsaw back to me. I can guarantee that I'll use it to cut Jashin-chan whenever she messes up from now on. Wouldn't that increase its brightness?" Yurine suggested.
"Is such a troublesome request really okay?" Chen Li mused.
"No problem, it's a simple matter," Yurine waved her hand, indicating that he shouldn't worry about inconveniencing her.
"But I worry! Can't you two listen to my suggestion and stop discussing such a horrifying topic so casually right next to me?!" Jashin-chan protested, waving her fists.
But Yurine had already taken back the chainsaw and was looking at Jashin-chan with a sinister expression, which instantly scared her into silence.
"If you're interested in an item's experiences, I can get you a few more things. Wait a moment." After successfully shutting Jashin-chan up, Yurine thought for a moment and walked to her storage room.
A short while later, she returned to the living room carrying a large pile of weapons and dropped them on the floor.
"See if there's anything you want. You can even take them all," Yurine said generously.
"..."
Chen Li hesitated as he looked at the blood-stained weapons before him. He touched them one by one and found that they all indeed had faint [God Slaying] Entries on them.
And which god had been slain? The answer was rather obvious.
He gave Jashin-chan a baffled look, unable to understand how she could die so many times and still keep asking for it.
"If it's alright, I'll take all of these. This is a small gift from me." Chen Li collected all the items and then handed 50 Star Jades to Yurine, explaining their use.
His [Star Sea Treasure] had a limited banner feature, but it required a Miracle Beacon to be established first. To form a Miracle Beacon, he needed to have condensed a Miracle Card in that world. For Encounter worlds, the requirement was relaxed to simply forging one Curio.
Although he couldn't set the Jashin-chan world as his limited banner, setting the Honkai world as the banner would actually yield more good stuff.
"For example, you could get smart robots, refrigerators, color TVs, and maybe even a star-destroying warship," Chen Li promoted his Star Jades with great enthusiasm.
Yurine's eyes lit up. As a chunibyo at heart, she wouldn't mind adding a star-destroying warship to her collection at all.
How cool would that be!
And Chen Li wasn't losing out either. One of the professional skills from his novice reward was called [Superimposition], which allowed him to stack the brightness of identical Entries. The conditions were extremely strict—for instance, the identical Entries had to come from the same source—but it was perfectly suited for the current situation.
Although the weapons before him were all different, the reason they all had a [God Slaying] Entry was the same: they had all been used to cut Jashin-chan. So they met the requirement perfectly!
It was a bit unfair to Jashin-chan, but since she hadn't said anything, it wasn't a big problem.
"So, is there anything else in the house you can sell?" Yurine continued to ask.
"Although your tone makes me feel like a second-hand goods recycler, there is one more thing I want... Is your eyepatch for sale?" Chen Li asked hesitantly.
"My eyepatch?"
"Yes, your eyepatch. You don't have some kind of 'An NTR protagonist will never take off his mask' rule, do you? I was curious earlier. Your eyepatch looks very bright to me, like it has some interesting Entries on it. May I take a look?"
If it wasn't too expensive, Chen Li didn't mind collecting some very bright Entries. You never knew when they might come in handy.
Yurine didn't hesitate and simply untied her eyepatch, handing it to him.
Once he held it, Chen Li could more clearly appraise the Entry on it.
[Seal]
It was an Entry so bright it almost blinded him. To put it bluntly, the brightness of the [Seal] Entry on this eyepatch was no less than that of the [Abundance] Entry on the ear of wheat Yaoshi had given him.
But looking at Yurine, who was casually playing with the Star Jades, Chen Li didn't notice anything different about her without the eyepatch. On the contrary, without it, she was a rare beauty.
"What kind of normal person covers their eye with an eyepatch every day? See? Your eyepatch is just as weird as these weapons," Jashin-chan spouted nonsense from the side.
Yurine's fist clenched.
It got hard. Her fist got hard.
Then, Yurine picked up the chainsaw.
"You just stand here and don't move. I'm going to go cut some snake meat for you as a welcome gift," Yurine said amicably to Chen Li before punching Jashin-chan to her knees and dragging her by the tail into the kitchen.
"Jashin-chan..." Medusa followed them in, looking panicked.
"Erm... I think I get it now." Hearing Jashin-chan's words, Chen Li suddenly understood.
The eyepatch was indeed an ordinary eyepatch. But it sealed the left eye (and sometimes the right) of Yurine Hanazono, the top-tier powerhouse of this world. The "seal" here didn't mean "to restrain," but rather "to cover."
But you tell me, isn't that a form of sealing?
[Seal] was a very practical Entry, and with its high brightness, if paired correctly, forging a one-star Curio would be a piece of cake. He might even be able to aim for a two-star Curio.
While waiting for Yurine to prepare his welcome gift, Chen Li's gaze scanned the room, looking for any other items with high-brightness Entries. He might find another hidden gem.
However, things were not as wonderful as he had imagined. The items in Yurine's home were indeed just ordinary objects.
When Yurine came out of the kitchen, she was followed by a completely drained-looking Jashin-chan and a thoroughly frightened Medusa.
"A welcome gift." Yurine tossed a sack of unknown objects to Chen Li.
He picked it up, glanced inside, and saw a large pile of snake meat.
"Thank you. This is the payment for the eyepatch. The [Seal] Entry on it is very bright and useful." Chen Li handed over another 50 Star Jades.
He could have bought the eyepatch for 10 or even fewer Star Jades, but a pleasant transaction atmosphere was the foundation for bigger deals. This world had so many good things; a higher initial investment was worth it.
Which was why Chen Li couldn't understand why he had the word [Profiteer] floating above his head.
[Profiteer] Entry Extraction in progress...
Progress: 25/100 (Progress increases when acquiring an item of extremely high value for the lowest possible cost.)
What? You say the progress increased because I spent 300,000 yen on an angel halo? Oh, never mind then.
That was definitely profiteering. No doubt about it.
"I didn't get a star-destroying warship, but it looks like I got a mech," Yurine said after receiving the new Star Jades. Under Chen Li's guidance, she did a ten-pull, using up all 100 Jades at once. And this time, it seemed she had pulled something incredible.
"Let me see. Holy shit, The Father?"
When Chen Li saw the robot in Yurine's hands, a classic Honkai Impact 3rd curse escaped his lips.
Isn't this the fucking 'The Father' from Honkai Impact 3rd, the one that's perpetually stuck at 95% completion?
When an item pulled from the Star Sea Treasure was too large, far exceeding the half-meter diameter of the portal, it would be temporarily shrunk. This shrunk state could last for up to a day. But anyone who saw the item could vaguely sense its true size.
"Ahem, Yurine, if you get tired of playing with this robot, you can sell it back to me. I'll take anything with valuable Entries or anything that's a suitable size to fit in my mouth and is clean," Chen Li said.
After touching The Father, Chen Li saw it had a rather peculiar Entry—[To Be Continued].
It was weird, but an interesting kind of weird.
"Buy it back with Star Jades?"
"That's right."
"But I'd rather have a star-destroying warship," Yurine said, stroking her chin.
"We can trade," Chen Li said after a moment's silence.
"Really?"
"But one 'The Father' won't be enough."
"No problem. I'll save up then," Yurine nodded. "Are there any other ways to earn Star Jades?"
"Not at the moment. More features are currently under development," Chen Li shook his head.
"I thought I could trade snake meat for Star Jades." Yurine looked at Jashin-chan with great regret.
"Eek!" Jashin-chan's hair stood on end from that single glance.
---o---