"Who said being a transmigrator was so inconvenient? While I don't know how Hatsune Miku rose to fame in your world, I've genuinely met her. I even received a commission from her to forge a delicious, infinite leek. See, this is that leek."
Chen Li temporarily borrowed Hatsune Miku's leek, hoping she wouldn't mind.
"Being a transmigrator sounds really interesting. I want to be one, too," Haruhi Suzumiya said, raising her hand.
"Sorry, you can't. But if you want to travel to another world, I might be able to help you."
"I want to go!"
"But tomorrow isn't Saturday or Sunday in your world, is it? Good students still have to go to school," Chen Li reminded her.
"Ugh, why can't every day be Saturday and Sunday starting tomorrow?" Haruhi complained after being reminded.
"Even if you say that, the world isn't going to change just because of your thoughts," Kyon retorted.
"..."
But after Kyon's retort, he noticed that everyone except for himself and Haruhi had fallen silent. And after quickly recalling Haruhi's absurd nature, Kyon suddenly felt... that it wasn't entirely impossible for the world to change because of one person's thoughts.
"So, want to try this leek? It's delicious," Chen Li said, changing the subject.
"Oh, right, speaking of which, you mentioned it earlier, right? This leek is also a Curio, isn't it?"
"Yes, and it's a leek that can be infinitely restored. No matter how many times you eat it, it will regenerate."
"You sound even more boring than me, forging a Curio like this," Haruhi said, looking at Chen Li in amazement.
"I'm not boring. A Curio Forger also needs to make money to support a family," Chen Li stated.
"But you didn't ask me for a forging fee, did you?" Haruhi paused.
"Exactly. So this Curio isn't yours at all," Chen Li said as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Eh? Then where's my Curio?"
"You can have your own Curio when you can afford the forging fee. For now, you can only use a shared one," Chen Li explained.
"Huh? So how many yen is the forging fee? I'll figure out a way to scrape it together for you."
"I don't accept money for forging Curios. I collect strange and unusual things instead. For example, Nagato's glasses. I could probably use them to forge an item that can turn someone stoic and emotionless. You can think of it as a 'tag' that represents an item. The more distinct that tag is, the more valuable it is to me," Chen Li explained.
"Emm... let me think about where I can get some distinct tags for you as a forging fee. I want my own Curio, too."
Haruhi began to think. Haruhi's brows furrowed. Haruhi gave up on thinking.
"SOS Brigade, assemble! Let's start thinking about how to gather the forging fee to create a Curio for the SOS Brigade!" Haruhi chose to borrow the power of her team.
"Didn't you just say you wanted a Curio for yourself? How did it suddenly become one for the SOS Brigade?" Kyon retorted.
"Don't worry about the details," Haruhi said with a wave of her hand.
"Ahem, I have a plan..." Chen Li suddenly raised his hand.
"Oh, I forgot you're also a member of the SOS Brigade. Go on then, what's your great idea, Vice-Brigade Chief?" Haruhi asked.
"When did I become the Vice-Brigade Chief?"
"Just now."
Although it was strange for Chen Li to be the one proposing an idea to gather his own forging fee, Haruhi felt it was perfectly natural.
"Kyon is a perfect fit," Chen Li said, cutting straight to the point without bothering with the trivialities.
"Are you trying to steal my brigade member? No way. Or are you planning to start your own faction?" I, Haruhi Suzumiya, can see the ambition in your eyes!
"It's not like that. I just think Kyon might have an Entry related to 'Tsukkomi' on him," Chen Li said.
"That makes sense. After all, Kyon's whole role is to be the tsukkomi. But you'd even take an Entry as ridiculous as that?" Haruhi asked after a moment's thought.
"What do you mean, 'tsukkomi role'? You guys are being seriously ridiculous," Kyon retorted.
"Still retorting. And you say you're not the tsukkomi role?"
"...This is just too much," Kyon retorted yet again.
"Alright, SOS Brigade, assemble! Strip Kyon's clothes off and let Chen Li see what on him has the 'Tsukkomi' Entry!" Haruhi cackled wickedly.
"It doesn't have to be that much trouble. I just need to touch him," Chen Li stepped in to say something reasonable.
Kyon looked at Chen Li with gratitude, seemingly having already forgotten that Chen Li was the reason he was about to be stripped naked in the first place.
And so, with Kyon's cooperation, Chen Li examined his clothes and personal belongings, finally succeeding in finding the item with the most prominent 'Tsukkomi' Entry.
"If I'm not mistaken, besides Kyon's entire being being suitable for extraction as a 'Tsukkomi' Entry, the most suitable material would be his teeth," Chen Li said with a straight face. After all, retorts come from the mouth.
"What? You want to pull my teeth?" Kyon instinctively covered his mouth.
"Of course, there is a less radical method."
"What is it?"
"Your SOS Brigade armband will also work," Chen Li said.
Though Kyon might not have realized it, a tsukkomi is only truly meaningful when it orbits the protagonist! And the SOS Brigade armband was naturally one of the protagonist group's most important items and symbols.
"You scared me. Here." Upon hearing that he wouldn't need a tooth pulled, Kyon quite readily handed his SOS Brigade armband to Chen Li. He'd always thought the thing was useless, so if it could save him from this disaster, all the better.
"Don't hand over your armband so eagerly," Haruhi glared at Kyon.
"Oh, I'll need yours too," Chen Li said.
"Eh?"
"You now face two choices. One, treat these armbands as the forging fee, and then you find the materials yourselves. The other option is to turn them into a material fee," Chen Li explained.
Forging a Curio would certainly not be this cheap, but Chen Li definitely stood to profit from Haruhi Suzumiya.
[Strengthening Machine] Entry extraction in progress... Progress: 1/3 (Using Haruhi Suzumiya to enhance the power of one's own items can increase progress)
[Wishing Machine] Entry extraction in progress... Progress: 1/3 (Using Haruhi Suzumiya to realize one's own wishes can increase progress)
For the sake of these two seemingly interesting Entries, Chen Li didn't mind forging a low-cost Curio for Haruhi. Theoretically, Chen Li could just forge any random Curio worth less than 5 Star Stones, exaggerate its effects, and potentially use Haruhi to generate a profit of 150 Star Stones.
However, Chen Li wouldn't go that far, because he didn't want to see this world get played to pieces by Haruhi. But he was definitely going to make a profit.
"What's a 'material fee'?"
"Star Stones." Chen Li took out 40 Star Stones and began to explain their function to Haruhi.
"You mean, if my luck is good enough, I can use these 40 Star Stones to draw a high-value item, sell it back to you for a higher price, get more Star Stones, and keep drawing? I choose this one!" Haruhi's interest was immediately piqued.
A Curio? What Curio? She could just use the shared one for now. Everyone knew that Haruhi Suzumiya's interest in anything only lasted for three minutes. Compared to a Curio, a lottery was obviously way more fun.
"You can, but I must remind you, that situation you described exists only in theory. The reality is you might only draw items worth exactly what you put in. If I'm not interested in the item, I won't buy it back," Chen Li warned.
"I don't care. I don't even know what kind of Curio I want anyway. If I draw a bunch of random junk, you can just use that random junk to forge a random Curio for me. We'll keep gathering the forging fee. Who knows, maybe we'll find some precious antique on our next SOS Brigade adventure," Haruhi said casually.
She had simply connected things with precious Entries to antiques. But she wasn't far off.
"Fine."
"Wait, how do we split 40 Star Stones among 6 people? It's not an even number, that's not good." Haruhi muttered to herself before looking at Chen Li. "How about I sell you everyone else's armbands as a package deal? For another 20 Star Stones?" Haruhi asked.
"Why 20? Aren't there only 5 other people?"
"Consider 10 Star Stones a gift for you. You are the Vice-Brigade Chief of the SOS Brigade, after all."
"Good grief, am I getting a kickback? Forget it, I don't need it. I'll just give you an extra 20 Star Stones." Chen Li directly handed over another 20.
In truth, after Haruhi had taken the Stance-Swapping Gun he had casually created out for a stroll, Chen Li had inexplicably gained 400 Star Stones. As expected of Haruhi Suzumiya. Add to that the 600 Star Stones he got just for messaging her... he would have given her another 100 if she'd asked. But Chen Li was genuinely afraid of what Haruhi would do with too many Star Stones, so he held back.
"Alright, the first one is for Kyon." Haruhi crushed a Star Stone and reached into the hole of the Starry Sea Treasure.
"I thought you were going to divide the stones among us. Turns out you're using them yourself and just giving us the items?" Kyon retorted.
"Quit your whining. Here, this is yours." Haruhi handed Kyon a round orb that looked as if it were polished from amber.
"What is this?" Kyon looked at the object in his hand curiously.
"Holy crap, a One-Star Dragon Ball?" Chen Li froze, staring at the orb and the star inside it.
"What do you mean?" Haruhi asked as she crushed another Star Stone for her next draw.
"It's an item from another world called a Dragon Ball. They say if you collect all seven, you can summon a divine dragon to grant you any wish. But unfortunately, you only have one," Chen Li explained.
"You mean like this?" Haruhi asked, holding up a Dragon Ball with two stars inside.
"Holy crap, a Two-Star Dragon Ball? Quick, quick, keep going!" Chen Li was stunned. Was this the [Wishing Machine] Entry pulling a wishing machine?
After Haruhi's 60 Star Stones were used up, six Dragon Balls were laid out in a row in front of Chen Li. He immediately took out ten more Star Stones and handed them to Haruhi.
"One more time! Brigade Chief!"
"Uh, okay." Seeing Chen Li so agitated, Haruhi's hand trembled as she crushed the ten stones.
It was impossible for Chen Li not to be excited. Come on, these were the Dragon Balls! Who didn't dream of collecting all seven as a kid? But even if they couldn't collect all seven, Chen Li would only be slightly disappointed, because the Dragon Balls themselves had extremely brilliant [Wish] and [Omnipotence] Entries. Whether an item was incomplete didn't matter much when it came to forging Curios.
"It's not a Dragon Ball this time, just a cup. Too bad," Haruhi said to Chen Li, holding a golden chalice.
"..."
Chen Li felt that his decision to let others pull from the Starry Sea Treasure for him was an absolutely brilliant one.
Perhaps everyone had their own "specialized weapon," allowing them to resonate more easily with the Starry Sea Treasure and precisely locate their fated item from among the countless treasures.
Just like the Holy Grail in Haruhi Suzumiya's hand.
Even if you could pull your specialized weapon, there was always a pity system, and you still had to obey the law of conservation of luck. So rather than forging a Curio specifically for lottery draws, it was far better to just buy the items his "Spare Tires" already had on hand at a low price.
Of course, he could always test the waters with the Elation Die later.
But for now, he had to figure out a way to buy these things!
---o---