Chen Luo had always thought his compatibility with "Little Three" should be pretty good—referring to the Third Divine Key. However, facts proved Chen Luo wrong.
When he held it in his hand, Chen Luo realized it wasn't just "pretty good"—it was exceptionally good.
The slingshot transformed into a sniper rifle almost instantly, following Chen Luo's will.
Through the sniper scope, Chen Luo found his vision was no longer entirely confined to ordinary sight. It was a concept transcending three dimensions, as if everything lay bare before him, with nowhere to hide.
Chen Luo raised the sniper rifle. As Honkai energy gathered, a bullet naturally fired, hitting a lone zombie in the distance.
"Hey, don't act recklessly! The sniper rifle form of the Seven Thunders of Retribution can fire bullets that disintegrate targets into atoms, but each shot temporarily damages it." Seeing Chen Luo use the Third Divine Key so casually, Raven hurriedly said.
"What are you worried about? I wasn't using that ultimate mode just now; I used an ordinary bullet." Chen Luo shot Raven a sidelong glance.
Chen Luo didn't know how Raven used the Third Divine Key, but at least in his hands, the sniper rifle form of the Third Divine Key had two modes: ordinary bullets and those that could disintegrate enemies into atoms.
"And how do you know it gets temporarily damaged after each shot? Who told you that?" Chen Luo asked.
"What's there to argue about? It's always been like this," Raven said.
"But have you ever considered the possibility that the Third Divine Key doesn't get temporarily damaged after firing such a bullet? Maybe it just doesn't want to deal with you after you fire one?" Feeling the Third Divine Key in his hand, Chen Luo proposed an idea.
"How could—" Raven started to wave her hand dismissively but suddenly froze mid-motion.
How was it impossible?
After all, the Third Divine Key, Seven Thunders of Retribution, heavily emphasized compatibility with its user.
According to Raven's speculation, it was called the Seven Thunders of Retribution because it should have seven forms, but she had only seen four.
"..." Thinking of this, Raven instantly fell silent.
"Did it tell you that?" Raven pointed at the Third Divine Key.
"Who knows? Maybe I'm just talking nonsense, so don't mind it." Chen Luo shook his head.
"How can I not mind it?!" Raven said through gritted teeth.
If what Chen Luo said was true, didn't that mean the Third Divine Key had been making a fool of her all along?
It wasn't exactly making a fool of her; among the many suitable candidates encountered in World Serpent, she was considered outstanding. It's just that this time, she seemed to have met someone even more suitable than herself.
Third Divine Key, Third Divine Key, I've been with you for so long, but Chen Luo has only been in contact with you for less than a minute.
Raven's heart was filled with mixed emotions.
But annoyingly, Chen Luo hadn't confirmed this matter definitively; he had said it in a questioning tone.
"Are you going to kill that pseudo-Herrscher? Let me go with you," Raven couldn't help but say to Chen Luo.
On one hand, Raven wanted to prevent Chen Luo from failing spectacularly; on the other hand, she wanted to prevent the loss of the Divine Key. Additionally, Raven was curious to see if Chen Luo could truly unleash the Third Divine Key's potential.
"Sure, of course." Chen Luo nodded. Or rather, Chen Luo couldn't refuse.
Perhaps this order came from Gray Serpent himself. Willing to lend the Third Divine Key to Chen Luo didn't mean they were completely at ease with him. What if Chen Luo ran off with the goods? So, it was normal for them not to feel comfortable letting him take the Third Divine Key out of their sight alone.
Besides, what he was about to do later wasn't anything shameful.
"Then say goodbye to the little ones first; we might not be back for about an hour." Chen Luo said to Raven.
"Okay." Raven nodded.
After Raven bid farewell to the children, Chen Luo took her and flew towards the pre-selected location.
"Where are we going?" Raven asked Chen Luo, who was flying in the air, as she leaped and bounded between towering buildings.
While tightly holding the Third Divine Key and analyzing its blueprint, Chen Luo answered, "Chiba Academy."
"Chiba Academy? I've heard of that. It's supposed to be a prestigious school in Nagazora, right? Why are we going there?" Raven was somewhat puzzled.
"Because a pseudo-Herrscher died there once." Chen Luo gave a brief reply.
That's right. Because Yuno, that pseudo-Herrscher, had died at Chiba Academy, Yae Sakura would instinctively and unconsciously gravitate towards it.
According to the Herrscher of Sentience's observations, this Yae Sakura seemed to have only recently left her seal and was in a state of extreme Honkai energy deficiency.
Although Yuno was dead, after her death, the vast amount of Honkai energy she had absorbed gathered entirely at Chiba Academy.
Perhaps Yae Sakura wasn't very interested in becoming a Herrscher, but the instinct of a pseudo-Herrscher would still drive her towards the area with the most concentrated Honkai energy.
And in Nagazora City, there were two places with the most concentrated Honkai energy.
One was ME Corp, and the other was naturally Chiba Academy, nourished by the pseudo-Herrscher.
Initially, Chen Luo wasn't sure which of these two places she would choose as her instinctive destination.
But after Chen Luo's Vision sucked up most of the Honkai energy at ME Corp, she probably had no choice but to select Chiba Academy.
But then again, Chen Luo's Vision was truly capable of absorbing Honkai energy. It still hadn't reached the point of evolution.
"I suspect this thing might not even successfully evolve after draining all the Honkai energy in Nagazora City," Chen Luo ranted, glancing at the Vision in his inventory.
"That's simple. Go to Schicksal. They have so many Honkai energy reactors. Anyway, Schicksal is huge and wealthy, and Otto has never refused us."
"As long as he doesn't say no, it means he agrees." The Herrscher of Sentience said confidently.
Since the Herrscher of Sentience had also set up several Teleport Waypoints at Schicksal, going there would probably be like visiting his own backyard for Chen Luo.
After flying and traveling for a while, Chen Luo and Raven finally arrived at Chiba Academy. According to the Herrscher of Sentience, the Yae Sakura was also about to arrive but would require Chen Luo and the others to wait a bit longer.
"Alright, let's rest here for now. I'll go scout the surroundings." Standing on the rooftop of the teaching building, Chen Luo finished speaking and then flipped off the building.
However, although he said he was going to scout the surroundings, Chen Luo's main destination was Yuno's original classroom.
Entering the classroom again, the poison mist had long since completely dissipated, leaving only some withered vines as evidence of Yuno's lingering traces.
As for Yuno herself, she had already vanished long ago.
Chen Luo carefully collected all the nearly withered vines into his inventory before returning to the rooftop.
Although these vines were almost completely dead, they still retained their toxicity. With his Puppeteer skill at the Mastery level, Chen Luo could use these poisons to create some special puppets.
Furniture Mastery truly is the real god.
Due to Furniture Mastery, although Chen Luo still couldn't turn Yvette that angel into a puppet, he could now create some ordinary intermediate and advanced puppets.
Chen Luo suspected that to reach the level of transforming Yvette into a puppet, he would need at least Master level in his puppeteer skill.
After several days of practice, even without triggering the Furniture Mastery ability, Chen Luo could now reach the Proficient level in his Puppeteer-related skills.
With a bit more practice, he might reach the Mastery level. Only after truly reaching Mastery could Chen Luo continue to grow.
Because Furniture Mastery only raised the level to Mastery—like if Chen Luo wanted his swordsmanship to reach Sword Master level, he needed to practice diligently until his panel displayed the words "Swordsmanship Mastery."
The reason he could improve his proficiency so quickly was still thanks to Furniture Mastery.
The main reason Chen Luo hadn't made any puppets yet was that grinding the event took priority over puppet-making.
"Chen Luo, where exactly is that pseudo-Herrscher you mentioned? How about you return the Third Divine Key to me first and let me take a look?" Raven, sitting bored on the rooftop of the teaching building, said.
"No." Chen Luo shook his head and hugged the Third Divine Key even tighter.
Or rather, since obtaining the Third Divine Key, Chen Luo had barely let go of it.
This was also to obtain the construction blueprint of the Third Divine Key as soon as possible.
"You don't need to hold it like that all the time. I won't fight you for it."
"What do you know? This is an important step in bringing people and Divine Keys closer together—inseparable intimacy." Chen Luo spouted nonsense without hesitation.
"???" Raven looked at Chen Luo with a mixture of belief and doubt.
I'm thinking you hadn't even touched the Third Divine Key before, yet it still obeys you so well.
Chen Luo simply ignored Raven and instead looked at the good stuff he had accumulated over the past few days.
Such as the random items and random Stigmata obtained after completing commission.
Chen Luo was a hoarder type, especially fond of stockpiling various supplies, including random items.
That random Stigma was naturally the reward for delivering the two Kianas to St. Freya Academy, and the two random items both came from Raven.
Not to mention, just from Raven alone, Chen Luo had fished out 1100 Primogems plus two random items. However, these commissions from Raven were indeed difficult.
If not for various special circumstances coincidentally meeting the commission completion conditions, completing these two commissions would have been extremely difficult for Chen Luo.
Chen Luo first opened the two random items.
Generally speaking, random items weren't trash, but random Stigmata could occasionally be godly or occasionally be utterly useless.
What if you drew a Hannah? Would you be happy? Definitely not.
But what if you drew a Newton (B)? Then you'd definitely be happy.
The first random item Chen Luo opened was a... cat teaser?
Dammit!
The moment Chen Luo saw this thing, he almost wanted to snap it in half.
But upon seeing that this cat teaser could affect any feline, humanoid creature, or even phantom beasts, Chen Luo temporarily dismissed that thought.
This thing didn't seem completely useless after all. Better keep it; it might come in handy someday.
Compared to this first seemingly useless but actually somewhat useful random item, the second one was truly completely incomprehensible.
[Children's Funland]
Simply put, the effect of this item was to construct a fun-filled amusement park in a person's heart. The time in this mental amusement park could be automatically adjusted relative to the outside world, while also ensuring mental clarity and maintaining a certain level of rationality, preventing oneself from going completely insane due to falling into immense negative emotions.
This... saying it's completely useless isn't right. This thing seems quite powerful, but I can't figure out how to use it at all.
Could it be used when becoming a Herrscher?
Probably not. Herrscher personalities shouldn't be negative emotions; they're more like split personalities or something.
In short, I really can't think of where this could be used.
But it seems potentially very useful.
Finally, the Stigmata.
Chen Luo didn't have very high expectations for this, but he was still subtly hopeful.
It was probably like randomly drawing a number between 1 and 10,000, and you get that many Primogems. You feel like it shouldn't be much, but you still secretly hope your luck explodes.
Nuwa · Puppeteer.
Dammit, what trash?
Chen Luo instinctively cursed in his heart.
Although it was a complete Stigma instead of being split into top, middle, and bottom pieces, which surprised Chen Luo, this Stigma was truly garbage. You didn't even need to look to know.
Chen Luo had obtained this Stigma during previous events. How should I put it? Only the artwork was somewhat nice; everything else was useless.
A jack-of-all-trades Stigma, with various confusing attributes. It seemed to offer both damage and support, but was actually very difficult to use, providing neither good damage nor good support.
But since it was at least a max-star Stigma, Chen Luo went ahead and checked its effect.
Effect: All damage caused by your summons increased by 60%.
"Tch, as expected— wait, what the hell? This isn't Nuwa · Puppeteer; this is just Nuwa! And it's even Nuwa's two-set effect!" Chen Luo was momentarily confused looking at this effect.
How legitimate is this Stigmata? It feels like a hodgepodge.
But regardless of how legitimate this Stigmata was, the effect was truly amazing.
Especially for Chen Luo, a Puppeteer.
As expected of a Stigma with the Puppeteer affix; it just has excellent supportive effects for puppeteers.
[Ding! Would you like to evolve this Stigma to unlock its true Puppeteer effects?]
See, see? I knew this talent panel was trying to squeeze more Crystals out of me.
Ever since obtaining Void Archives and unlocking the limit break function, Chen Luo had a faint premonition about this. Now it was almost confirmed.
Pah, garbage talent panel!
Stigma: [Puppeteer]
①: All damage caused by your summons (puppets) increased by 60%.
②: While on the field, for every additional summon (including squad members, puppets...), your own all damage increases by 20%, stackable up to 5 times.
Evolve it! Evolve it! Anyone who doesn't is an idiot! It's just 5000 Crystals? Take them!
Talent panel, I love you!
Chen Luo almost instantly changed his tune.