"Senti, if I asked you to control his body and make him leave our neighborhood—or at least get him away from here—could you do it?" Chen Luo asked.
The biggest problem right now was that this idiot hadn't even tried to avoid surveillance cameras while tailing him. If he went missing or turned up dead, Chen Luo would be suspect number one.
If they could just get him out of the neighborhood, Chen Luo had plenty of ways to make him disappear from this world.
Chop him up and stuff him in his inventory so that he will never see the sun in this life.
Or drag him into the bar and ask Venti to dump the body in the wilderness next time he visited.
Let's see the cops try to find a corpse in another dimension. If they manage that, I'll accept eternal gacha pity as my fate!
"No. I already tried. The Heart Demon seems to grant him resistance to mental control. Especially with me still seriously injured, there's a good chance he'd break free." The Herrscher of Sentience shook her head under Chen Luo's hopeful gaze.
"Wait, you're still injured?" Chen Luo gave her a surprised look.
"What, did you think 'severely wounded' in your mission description was just flavor text? I only recovered about 30% of my strength right now. Thankfully, this world's spiritual energy has strong healing properties. I should recover soon." She shot him a disdainful glance.
"Spiritual energy? What's that?"
"According to that bodyguard's memories, it's this world's unique energy—like Honkai energy back home. Both are types of mana. Not sure about other uses, but for healing, spiritual energy works way better. So? Got any ideas? We can't keep him tied up in the basement forever."
"Well... I do have one."
"Which is?"
"You think if Yun Xia gave me these amulet, she might have a way to monitor whether they're being used?" As he spoke, Chen Luo tossed a handful of the jade pendants onto the delinquent.
The moment they made contact, the previously dull talismans suddenly glowed, emitting a soft light.
"AHHH—!" The delinquent screamed as tendrils of black mist rose from his body. His cries were loud enough that, if not for the basement's soundproofing, someone would've called the police.
Crack.
Along with the screaming, Chen Luo heard a faint cracking sound. He quickly retrieved the talismans, inspecting them with concern.
"Whew. Only two cracked a little, and they can still be recycled." He sighed in relief after checking all 24 pendants.
"This thing can be recycled?" The Herrscher of Sentience raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, of course it can, but the recycling price is a bit of a rip-off, half price recycling, that is, 5 Primogems each."
Chen Luo found this outrageous, but protests were useless.
"Still, will your plan actually work?"
"Only one way to find out." He pulled out his phone.
If his guess was right, he'd be getting a call within two minutes.
…
"Sigh... I wonder if Chen Luo will awaken a talent? They say people on the verge of awakening are like desserts to those evil spirits. Good thing I was smart enough to send those Protective Jades. I hope he doesn't need them"
Lying on her oversized bed, Yun Xia idly twirled a dragon-shaped jade pendant. This dragon-shaped jade pendant is paired with the protective jade, creating a paired monitoring device.
If the pendant glowed, it meant the amulet had been activated.
If it shattered, it meant all the amulets had been exhausted... and the user was in mortal danger.
The brightness indicated threat severity. Right now, the faint glow meant Chen Luo was facing some danger, but nothing life-threatening.
...Wait. Faint glow?
Yun Xia bolted upright when she saw the illuminated pendant.
"Number Two just confirmed he received them, and they're already active?!" She couldn't believe it, but her hands moved faster than her thoughts, immediately dialing the number pinned at the top of her contacts.
At the same time, a meter-long magic staff materialized in her grip. A flash of light later, her pajamas were replaced by a cute pink outfit.
"A'Luo! Are you okay?!" she demanded the moment the call connected after agonizing rings.
…
"See?" Chen Luo hung up and smirked at the Herrscher of Sentience.
"I told you there was a 50% chance she was monitoring. That's how it always works in novels."
"...Novels." The Herrscher of Sentience never thought her millennia of knowledge would lose to fiction tropes.
"But how will you explain that you beat him? Planning to reveal your talent? Or just part of it?" The Herrscher of Sentience asked
She didn't recommend exposing his abilities—in her view, no one in this world was trustworthy.
...Except her, of course.
They were partners in crime, after all.
"Thanks to Venti, actually. A Vision can easily pass as wind-based powers." Chen Luo pulled out his Anemo Vision from his inventory.
His vision worked even when stored in his inventory, making it perfect for pretending to be a wind-attribute ability user.
"Also, have you noticed something...?" He grinned.
"What?"
"The two talents I've seen so far have some connection to anime or game characters." He said as he summoned his Dull Blade with a flourish.
"So why can't I cosplay as someone too?"
With a flick of his wrist, the sword vanished—not into his inventory, but through its intrinsic ability to disappear when not in use. Chen Luo does not understand how this works, but it seems that all Genshin Impact characters seemed to have this skill.
So the question is, what does Anemo + sword + Vision add up to?