"So... my dear Li-bao, do you have a way to get me back to Gensokyo?" Kaguya dropped the act, looking at Chen Li with great anticipation.
"Because of Jingliu?" Chen Li asked in return.
"Mhm, mhm," Kaguya nodded repeatedly.
Jingliu, meanwhile, had no idea why Kaguya was saying this.
"Well..." Chen Li knew that Kaguya could deduce his ability to communicate with other worlds from Jingliu's presence, but he was trying to figure out how to explain it.
Should he tell her the truth?
Was Kaguya Houraisan trustworthy?
Never let your guard down. This was one of the fundamental tenets that had kept Chen Li alive since his first transmigration at the age of thirteen.
"Why aren't you saying anything? Do you have some concerns? Tell me what they are," Kaguya said, breaking the silence.
Kaguya wasn't an impatient person by nature, but this matter truly touched upon a bottom line for her.
"Quiet, I'm looking something up."
"What are you looking up? Let me see... 'Kaguya Houraisan has a nature that makes it impossible for her to forget a kindness done to her'?" Kaguya leaned over to peek at the information on Chen Li's phone and was utterly shocked.
"You actually believe stuff from the internet? You might as well believe me if I said I were the First Emperor of Qin," Kaguya said, quickly becoming flustered and snatching the phone from his hand.
"Good point. Give me ten minutes," Chen Li said, then stood up and walked to the side, summoning his forging platform and Miracle Hammer.
Because Kaguya and he existed in the same world, his wariness of her was often deeper than his wariness of others.
Kaguya could, quite literally, show up at his door.
Therefore, Chen Li decided to forge a Curio.
A Curio that he needed now, and would definitely need in the future.
Kaguya watched with curiosity as Chen Li, mid-conversation, suddenly ran off to the side and started smithing.
She knew Chen Li's sub-profession was a Forger; in fact, providing him with Immortal Slough was one of her main sources of income.
But as she watched the blue flames rise, she felt a faint sense of familiarity.
Chen Li tossed the crystal containing the [Compulsory Transaction] Entry into the Miracle Fire.
---o---
[Compulsory Transaction Gold Coin]: When both parties state the terms of a deal in the presence of this coin, the transaction will be forcibly executed and cannot be violated.
Note: The more equivalent the exchange is between the two parties, the greater the coin's power to enforce the deal on a target with a higher level of authority.
PS: NEVER! EVER! Speak carelessly in front of the coin. NEVER! Important things must be said three times!
(Miracle: Gensokyo? Oh, found it. System records indicate that this world has many idiots, and a lot of Miracle Power was used in strange ways. Compared to worlds that were destroyed by the misuse of miracles, worlds like this that managed to pull back from the brink in time are a minority.)
The exquisite, small, and ornate gold coin in Chen Li's hand was different from his previous Curios.
This Curio was constructed from a single Entry. Yet, the cost in Crystals was not low at all. Not counting the crystal used to preserve the Entry itself, it still cost a full 15 Crystals.
[Compulsory Transaction] originally came from the Curio [The Call That Reaches Afar]. Extracting the Entry had consumed very little Miracle Fire, and including the preservation crystal, it had only cost two Crystals.
But Chen Li then spent another 12 Crystals to raise the Entry's "brightness" as high as he could.
This caused the Curio's initial capacity to be insufficient, forcing him to spend another two Crystals to increase its Entry slot limit.
Compared to the "traditional" method of Curio forging, this approach was unconventional, suitable for Entries that already fit his needs perfectly and required no other Entries to support them.
Increasing an Entry's brightness had diminishing returns; the higher the brightness, the more Crystals were required, with the cost rising exponentially. As a Curio Forger, one had to weigh the cost-effectiveness.
Curio Forger: Lv1 (104/100)
Seeing this, Chen Li decided to wait until he got home to level up.
Holding the newly forged Curio, Chen Li walked back to Kaguya.
"Come on, let's make a deal. I will do my best to try and help you get home. In return, during this period and after you return to Gensokyo, you cannot harm me in any way, physically or mentally. Furthermore, since I am the one providing the service, you will need to fulfill my reasonable requests to a certain extent. This includes, but is not limited to... reasonable transactions regarding your body—I mean, for Immortal Slough—and helping me create fake medicine that can extend one's lifespan by adding a bit of the power of eternity," Chen Li said, holding the gold coin.
"Isn't that just pledging myself to you? Fine by me. As long as you can send me back to Gensokyo, I'll do whatever you say," Kaguya said with a wink, trash-talking playfully.
"???"
Seeing the gold coin in his hand begin to glow, Chen Li's mind went completely blank.
---o---
"I'm sorry, I'll never speak carelessly again!" Kaguya begged for mercy, holding her head.
In the last thirty seconds, Chen Li had nearly covered her head in bumps.
"Alright, what do we do now? You lolicon," Chen Li said, crossing his arms and looking at the now docile Kaguya sitting properly beside him.
I'm only seventeen! You're breaking the law, you know that?!
"The key is, you never told me this thing could forcibly execute deals between two parties! Otherwise, why would I have said something like that?" Kaguya said, feeling wronged.
Isn't it common for online friends to banter with each other?
One day you're "sisters," the next you're having a "father-son match," and the day after that it's "grandfather-grandson."
This was a true case of "disaster striking from the mouth"!
"Alright, you have a point, but I'm not omnipotent either. Fortunately, you added the condition 'I'll do whatever you say' at the end, so it's not like there's no way to salvage this."
"What do you mean?"
"I just have to not allow you to pledge yourself to me, right?" Chen Li said, throwing his hands up.
But then again, it was precisely because of that condition that the compulsory transaction was able to be sealed.
Chen Li didn't need Kaguya to pledge herself to him, but his request was that she listen to him under reasonable circumstances and not harm him.
Kaguya's words had perfectly fulfilled those conditions.
Because Chen Li's expectations were met, and Kaguya's expectation of returning home was also met, her "I'll do whatever you say" was regarded by the coin as a voluntarily added bonus.
Although there had been a small accident, Chen Li was very satisfied with this Curio.
If this Curio could entrap Kaguya, it could entrap others just as easily.
Chen Li didn't have to use this feature, but he couldn't be without it.
In any case, as long as he kept his own mouth in check, he'd be fine.
"Aside from pledging myself to you, how do we resolve the other... 'additional bonuses'?" Kaguya asked, feeling a headache coming on.
"That," Chen Li said, throwing his hands up again and deciding to just let it ride, "will depend on my conscience."