"So, are you going to agree or not? If you don't, I'm leaving," Tonghua said, letting go of Chen Li and standing up with her arms crossed.
"But then again, we're the dearest of friends, closer than brothers. It's not out of the question for me to forge a Curio for you," Chen Li said, his tone shifting.
"You said it, no take-backs."
"No take-backs. But you have to tell me what kind of Curio you want first," Chen Li stated.
[Custom]: The Fairy Tale Evil God seems to have a request for a Curio forging. Go and discuss it with her.
Client: Tonghua.
Reward: Unknown
Risk: Unknown.
Seeing the forging commission generate, Chen Li felt a little more at ease.
Once he confirmed her requirements, he could judge the risk of forging a Curio for her.
Besides, if he made a Curio for Tonghua, he could add her to his Friends list.
In the future, if he was outmatched, he could just summon an Evil God.
"Well… I have to think about this carefully," Tonghua said, looking conflicted.
"Take your time, no rush."
"Can I have a wish-granting machine?" Tonghua suddenly asked.
"You can."
"Really?"
"I can indeed make one, but I won't give it to you. Guess why?"
"Why?"
"Because I don't have the Crystals. And if you got a wish-granting machine, you definitely wouldn't use it for anything good!"
After seeing the reward for Tonghua's commission change to 40 Crystals and the risk level become High, Chen Li understood the cost of creating such an item.
He did have an [Almighty] Entry, but its brightness was low. He had no idea how many Crystals it would take to enhance it enough to forge a wish-granting machine-level Curio.
"Then forge a Curio that will let me obtain the authority over all the fairy tales and stories of the infinite worlds."
"Now you're just treating me like a wish-granting machine. And even if I could make it, could you afford the labor fee?" Chen Li shot her a look.
A Curio of that level would cost at least 100 Crystals to start, and he had no idea how to even begin forging it.
Besides, if such a thing existed, he'd want one for himself.
"Why can't you do anything?"
"I'm giving you one last chance to make a commission request," Chen Li said, holding up a single finger.
"Ugh… fine! Then just help me forge a Curio that can be used to slay gods!" Tonghua said, flustered.
"What do you want something like that for?" Chen Li's eyes widened as he saw the commission's risk level turn a blood-red [CRITICAL].
Dumbass, what are you planning?!
This was the first time he had ever seen a commission with a [CRITICAL] risk level.
"Isn't this for you? As my only believer, if my power skyrockets, won't you also benefit?"
Chen Li didn't react to her statement in the slightest.
Feeling uneasy under his stare, Tonghua finally spoke again.
"Li, you know that for an Evil God, the fastest and most effective way to become stronger is to kill other Evil Gods and absorb their authority. But my own authority isn't suited for combat. Although I've gotten much stronger in this world, it's still too slow. So I wanted to take a little shortcut," Tonghua said with a shrug.
"…So you plan to take a god-slaying Curio back to your world and kill all the other Evil Gods there?" Chen Li asked, a headache building.
"Yeah, what's the problem?"
"The problem is huge, okay? Hold on a second."
"Hmm?" Tonghua was confused.
Chen Li had already taken out 20 Star Stones.
He planned to test a new function he had acquired after completing the second beginner's quest.
[Prophecy]: By consuming Star Stones, you can observe the specific risks of a forging commission.
This Prophecy ability, like his Appraisal skill, was a professional tool meant to better assist a Curio Forger in their work.
And this was the perfect time to use it.
He was very curious about the risk of this commission, and he was taking it very seriously.
On one hand, if he successfully forged a god-slaying Curio, he might have a use for it himself.
On the other hand, he was also worried about his major benefactor, Tonghua.
As the Star Stones vanished, the scenery before Chen Li blurred and changed. A scroll slowly unfurled before him.
It was a world filled with despair and sorrow.
This was fate, this was inevitable, this was the final end of the world.
When the originally weak, one might even say feeble, Fairy Tale Evil God returned with a god-slaying weapon in hand, it signaled the end of a long and protracted war of gods.
In the dim sky, a black sun was rimmed with gold. Beneath the haze-shrouded ruins, the few survivors could not draw even a speck of warmth from it.
Time itself seemed to have frozen in this moment.
Until a curious, prying gaze was cast upon it, disturbing this unchanging world.
The sky trembled slightly. A similarly dim, black moon slowly appeared on the other side of the sky.
It was as if some supreme power had transformed the sun and the moon into the eyes of some indescribable horror.
When the "four eyes" met, a dazzling horizon appeared once more in this long-dead world.
It was a faint smile from the final Evil God—one who had won all the god wars, only to bring about the end of the world prematurely and fall into a state of blind idiocy itself—as if it had seen something delightful.
But that smile seemed to expend the world's last bit of warmth. The world began to collapse, to disintegrate, until all its "shells" fell away, and the true Evil God broke free from its cocoon.
At this moment, It was both Evil God and World.
The Final Evil God—[WORLD].
"Heeheeheehee!" A bizarre laugh echoed endlessly, causing the worlds not far from the Evil God [WORLD] to tremble violently.
Earthquakes and natural disasters erupted within them.
The Evil God, whose laughter alone caused such tremors, paid it no mind. Instead, it reached out a hand towards that prying gaze…
---o---
"Hey, are you alright?" Tonghua's voice sounded in Chen Li's ear.
The scroll began to roll up, and the real world reappeared. He saw Tonghua looking at him with some concern.
"If you don't want to forge a Curio for me, just say so. Don't scare me like that," Tonghua complained, seeing that he seemed to be conscious again.
Snap!
Chen Li snapped his fingers.
The Miracle Barrier instantly enveloped the two of them, isolating them from all harm and causality.
"What, did you change your mind? Are you going to forge it for me now? But do you even have the materials?" Tonghua's eyes lit up with joy when she saw the forging furnace appear.
"Let's put the forging aside for a moment. If you don't mind me asking, among all the Evil Gods in your world, you aren't considered particularly strong, are you?"
While watching the prophecy, Chen Li had been able to see a narrator's text, which was why he asked this question.
"That's a really rude question to be asking, you know," Tonghua said, looking at him with annoyance.