Crystals: 82
Star Stones: 364
Beginner's Quest (Part 2): 4/5
Complete three Miracle Check-ins (2/3)
Surveying the gains from his seven-day stay in the Encounter world, Chen Li lay on his sofa, not wanting to move an inch.
Although the Miracle Shield and Miracle Cards were enough to ensure his survival, he was mentally exhausted. The effort of forging Curios accounted for the largest part of that exhaustion.
"I've accumulated so many Crystals by completing beginner's quests and obtaining Miracle Cards. I need to figure out how to forge an offensive Curio for myself," Chen Li mused, his fingers tapping lightly on the cover of The Guide to Forging Curios.
He was also just one Miracle Check-in away from completing the second beginner's quest and getting the extra rewards.
But finding a suitable "Miracle Check-in" in his home world required a stroke of luck, as many events here were likely predestined and thus wouldn't count as miracles.
"Thinking about it that way, I'll have to go back to the Flame-Chasers, or find a suitable commission and visit another world," Chen Li thought, stroking his chin.
Although it felt strange to return to the Flame-Chasers so soon after leaving, the truth was that he had only come back to his home world to settle his rewards and restock. It wasn't because he particularly missed this place.
Seriously, who would genuinely like a world that feels like it's constantly "bullying" you?
While he knew it was because of his passive talent, he couldn't help but develop an increasingly negative impression of this world.
In this world, the bigger the storm, the more valuable the fish. But in other worlds, the fish were valuable even when the storm wasn't that big.
Knowing what was going to happen in a world (the plot), combined with a certain level of strength, allowed him to grow much faster.
At the very least, Chen Li knew what he needed to do to create a "miracle."
The only things he cared about in this world were his parents and a few "teammates."
Oh, and the Relics.
This point was very important.
In Chen Li's eyes, Relics were the perfect forging materials.
The Entries on them were all incredibly bright, which represented high quality. And because Relics themselves were already rule-based in nature, converting them into true Entries consumed very little of the Flames of Miracle—they could be used with just a few modifications.
With this in mind, Chen Li stood up and walked toward his family's basement.
Because the original Chen Li didn't have a high resistance to anomalies, all the Relics with stronger side effects, aside from the Knight's Broken Sword, were sealed in the basement.
Those were all things that belonged to him, obtained through one life-or-death crisis after another.
A short while later, Chen Li returned to the living room and placed five items on the coffee table.
Each of the five items was encased in a special transparent container.
This was the standard method for storing these five Relics. It was a generic method, but because of its generic nature, the isolation of their side effects was incomplete. People with insufficient anomaly resistance couldn't face these boxes for long periods.
But after merging with the Miracle System, Chen Li's resistance to anomalies had greatly increased.
A mirror, a die, a pair of glasses, a comb, and a microphone.
These five Relics were the items he had acquired through years of trouble.
When Chen Li touched the containers, he could see the extremely bright Entries on the five items within.
The mirror's true form was a labyrinth, and its name was the [Mirror of the World]. When used, it would transport everyone nearby into a mirror maze. Inside, you would face various challenges, and only those who survived would be allowed to leave. To date, the survival rate for those who entered and came out safely was only 10%.
The downside was that it would swallow the user as well, and the user would be specifically targeted within the maze.
That was why Chen Li had never used it.
His own process of escaping that maze was a story too long and painful to tell.
Its passive side effect was the risk of being attacked by a mirror demon when passing by any reflective surface.
The die was called the [Lucky 20-Sided Die]. Each face represented an event, and upon use, the user would experience that event.
However, of the 20 events, at least 18 were negative.
After any luck-based item interfered with the die's roll once, the die would become permanently immune to that item's effect.
The problem was, Chen Li had no idea what kind of luck-based Relic could even affect this die in the first place.
Its passive side effect was worsening one's luck. And after using it, your luck would become even worse.
The glasses were a pair of X-ray glasses.
That's right, exactly the kind you're imagining.
The kind that sees right through to the bone.
Their full name was [Orthopedist's X-Ray Glasses]. Their effect was slightly stronger than an X-ray machine, but not by much.
If there was a benefit, it was that they could be used to identify demons and monsters, making them a different kind of demon-revealing mirror.
The side effect, however, was irreversible vision loss, eventually leading to blindness.
Merely carrying them could cause one's eyes to inexplicably weep tears of blood. Although it didn't damage one's vision, it was terrifying.
The bone comb was actually a good item, named the [Blood Comb]. Using this comb to brush one's hair granted eternal youth.
But its side effect was that the comb needed to directly absorb 2000 milliliters of fresh blood from a living person every day, and it would gradually drive the user insane.
The [Taunting Microphone] had a relatively minor side effect. When used, it would make everyone who heard its sound look at the user.
The more spiritual or magical energy used, the larger its area of effect.
The side effect was merely that you could only say one phrase into it: [Everyone look over here, I have an announcement, I'm an idiot!], and it would cause everyone who heard it to focus all their aggro on you.
A great item, a truly great item. A must-have weapon for a main tank in a group battle.
It just wasn't suitable for Chen Li.
It was precisely because these five Relics were either useful but had debilitating side effects, or were just plain useless, that Chen Li had kept them sealed in the basement.
Besides these Relics, Chen Li also threw some other strange trinkets into his inventory, each with some minor Entries on them.
Ding-dong!
Just as Chen Li was thinking about how to use the Entries from these five Relics to create an offensive Curio, his doorbell rang.
Chen Li put the Relics away, stood up, and went to open the door. When he opened it, he saw a blonde girl in a red hat, her thighs wrapped in black stockings, standing prettily at his doorstep, giving him a gentle smile.
"Tonghua, what are you doing here?" Chen Li asked after greeting her.
"I heard you were bullied at the school gate this afternoon, so I came to ask if you want me to kill his entire family," the blonde girl asked.
"No, thanks. Goodbye." Chen Li slammed the door shut with a bang.
However, when he turned back to the living room, he saw the blonde girl's figure once again, now sitting right where he had been sitting.
"..." Chen Li wasn't the least bit surprised by this, only feeling a sense of weariness.
"After all this time, Little Li, you're as naive as ever. Did you really think closing the door would keep me out?" the blonde girl asked, looking up at Chen Li with a teasing smile.
"This isn't naivete," Chen Li emphasized. "It's my final act of defiance against an Evil God."
Don't be fooled by this girl's beautiful appearance. She was an Evil God.