"Something's happened." Zhu Yan said.
The man finally turned around.
He had an extremely refined appearance, with sharp lines to his brows, eyes, lips, and nose, and a slight bend in the bridge of his nose.
A monocle was perched in his sunken eye socket.
The thing would fall off at the slightest change of expression, which meant this... well, whatever it was—puppet or not—seemed extremely deadpan.
He listened carefully to everything Zhu Yan had to say.
"...Oh, I see, so you want me to craft a counterfeit—no wait, a high-quality replica good enough to pass as the real thing—and it also needs to have some practical functionality, so that even if those resource-brokers take this blade into a dungeon in the meantime, they won't notice anything off?"
That was a very comprehensive summary, fully matching what Zhu Yan had in mind for the blade.
"Correct." Zhu Yan looked at him very earnestly.
Dragonfly—no wait, the man—exploded.
"Why don't you just kill me?"
Was it really that hard?
Zhu Yan's heart gave a little lurch.
The man—no, Dragonfly—went off like a machine gun, his tone completely at odds with that refined, bookish face.
"Friend, why would you torment a poor dragonfly like this? Do you have any idea how difficult these requirements of yours are?"
"You want me to add temporary functionality to this thing, I'll need a whole bunch of high-end components, including a built-in function timer!"
"Right now I have zero creepy-crawlies available to supply that to me, so I'd have to handcraft it for at least two hours, and that's not even counting the other materials."
The man glared at Zhu Yan furiously, and with the exaggerated play of his expressions, his monocle went clatter as it hit the floor and shattered into pieces.
Zhu Yan couldn't care less at this point.
Scared the hell out of me—the moment he heard that first line, he'd thought this guy couldn't actually build it.
Dragonfly had a certain fondness for bone-gold coins, and Zhu Yan knew that well.
And he knew even better that Dragonfly liked vacations more than the coins.
As long as Dragonfly could produce the blade, money was no object.
He could afford to spend another 400 bone-gold coins just to buy a few more days of its precious time off.
"Also," the man was absolutely livid, "do you have any idea what your dear roommate did?"
He pointed into the empty glass counter.
"A whole bunch of weapons missing! Blessed Land, I barely got through handling Ji Xiting, sacrificed one of my best puppets to do it!"
"And I come back to find my shop robbed! Do you know how much worth of stuff they took?"
Oh, right.
He vaguely recalled Yang Zhanbai mentioning taking some painkillers from the [Lazy Handicraft Workshop].
And that silver pistol Yang Zhanbai had pointed at him—he hadn't paid attention at the time given the rush, but now that he thought back, its origin was highly suspicious.
"...How much worth?" Zhu Yan asked.
He was just asking.
No intention of paying that bill.
"250 bone-gold coins." The silver-haired man laughed coldly. "Yeah, you know what? That 250—perfect match for their brains."
Zhu Yan nodded. "I couldn't agree more. So, what would you charge for me to get such a weapon, plus a decent imitation of [Demon Cloak], and I need it by dawn tomorrow?"
The silver-haired man gaped. "Are you saying I don't get to sleep?"
"Correct."
"150 bone-gold coins." The silver-haired man wilted. "You'll cover the extra 90."
Zhu Yan said, "I'll give you 110 more on top of that, rounding you up to 200. I have two questions for you."
Dragonfly's complaining had him a little uneasy.
Better to sell Dragonfly a favor and soothe things over... after all, from what he'd seen, this was one of the few creepy-crawlies in [Carnival Paradise] that was easier to get close to as a player.
Besides, judging by how things looked now, he'd probably rely on Dragonfly far more going forward.
Building a good rapport would only help—no harm in it.
The man's eyes lit up. "Ooh! Two days' worth of vacation money!"
He rubbed his hands together, which gave Zhu Yan a brief flashback of Dragonfly rubbing its little bug-feet.
"Hehehe, I do appreciate a generous man like you. Your character suits your fate—you're bound to do well."
"I can have it done by half-past ten tonight. I'll even set up a bed right here so you can sleep over!"
The man's mouth turned sweet as honey in an instant.
"Go on, go on, little [Hunter]. What do you want to ask?"
...
"Tampering with memories? Or masking real ones?"
The silver-haired man leaned lazily against the glass counter.
If he was still in his dragonfly form, his tail would definitely be curled up right now, limp as can be.
But, having shifted into his humanoid shape, there was now a strange, lazy elegance about him.
"I don't have anything like that. But hold on—there's a high-level [Witch] I get along with... well, because I can help inlay silver ornaments into her face."
He grabbed the phone on the counter and quickly dialed a number.
Zhu Yan waited anxiously nearby.
After a series of explanations and brief replies of "yep", "yes", and "alright", the man set the receiver down and nodded at Zhu Yan.
"She can brew a potion that temporarily alters memory. You take it and it takes effect the next day. Side effect is you'll be dead asleep for a solid ten hours."
"Price is fifteen bone-gold coins a bottle."
"...I don't think you'd mind that, little Hunter."
Well, that was a deal too good to refuse.
What kind of idiot would complain about extra sleep?
"You'd better come pick up the potion and the instruction sheet before five in the afternoon... then go to sleep at six, and wake up at four in the morning to pick up the completed weapon from my place."
That worked too.
In that gap, he could make a run to [Carnival Paradise], hit up [The Pulpit], then throw on his new cloak and restock at [Demon Emporium].
As for [Fangcun Mountain], that could wait until after tomorrow's meeting.
Zhu Yan paid without hesitation.
"My second question is about Ji Xiting."
He made no move to leave, continuing to describe the clearly abnormal broadcast he'd heard earlier today to the silver-haired man.
"...Why do you say he's a player? Can he really disguise himself as one?"
This time, the silver-haired man's face took on the same meaningful expression that Dragonfly's would have.
"Ooh, Hunter."
"This question involves a bit of private information..."
Then he pivoted: "However! When Ji Xiting orders me to make things, he has never once paid me a single coin—not even one bone-copper. So he doesn't count as my client!"
Dragonfly never leaks a client's privacy—but non-clients' privacy is free game.
Zhu Yan had to give him credit for that.
"He died a year ago." The silver-haired man gave an eerie smile. "Mhm, and his father died only a month after him. Oh, if we're going there, that's quite the amusing little story!"
Zhu Yan found the remark highly unusual.
"You specifically mentioned his father... Did his father also become a creepy-crawly?"
The silver-haired man nodded, a glint of anticipation in his eyes.
"For your level right now, this information isn't important."
"However, I have a feeling it will come in handy one day—maybe to help you do in Ji Xiting."
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
e, Immortal Body, Transmigration, System, Progression Fantasy, Academy Setting, Third-Person Perspective. Alternate Title: Transmigrating into a High Martial World and Reading Live Comments. Bad news: I transmigrated. This is a terrifying high-martial world, and my original, pathetically weak body fell into a coma and never woke up. Good news: I got a Popularity Points system upon arrival. I can see live comments and even create an unkillable alternate identity. Starting out, the alternate identity has all stats at 1. The system tells me that to grow stronger, I must participate in the plot, gain popularity points to allocate stats and grow stronger, and ultimately awaken my original body. And so, carrying my original body on my back, I officially entered Huaqing Academy, where the story's protagonist resides. From that moment on, Chen Guan kicked the original plot to pieces. Live Comments: [Doesn't anyone find this mysterious coffin guy creepy? He can summon indescribable grey misty hands.] [Is this guy a hero or a villain? What kind of onion became a spirit?] [By the way, does anyone know who's in the coffin? Shouldn't the debt for saving his life be repaid by now?] [According to unofficial histories, the person in the coffin was Chen Guan's first love. Their love was once passionate and earth-shattering, but they were separated by life and death due to worldly circumstances. What a star-crossed pair.] ... Years later, the world knew of a demon god born from a coffin, shrouded in grey mist, impossible to gaze upon directly. His foremost divine emissary often wielded a scythe, reaping lives like the god of death. As war approached, facing former friends and a boundless sea of enemies, Chen Guan merely raised his scythe. "Would you like to dance as well?"
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
or! A blessing for those who struggle with love, a guidebook for dating novices. Quickly match with your dream goddess! Complete walkthroughs earn rewards, and perfect walkthroughs unlock limited achievements!】 Shen Yi, an ordinary office worker, accidentally downloads a mini-game called Dating Simulator. The mini-game is simple: randomly search for dating targets, simulate dates, and receive rewards upon successful confession. Rewards include but are not limited to money, attributes, and skills. The higher the evaluation, the better the rewards, with perfect ratings unlocking mysterious achievements. Shen Yi plans to use this mysterious mini-game to continuously pursue targets and improve himself, making his life better and better. ...... However, after several successful walkthroughs, Shen Yi suddenly notices something strange - the targets he previously simulated dating seem to be searching for him in real life?
