Chapter 77: Merfolk Fairy Tales (I)

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Chapter 77: Merfolk Fairy Tales (I)

∇ Congratulations, A’chen, for completing the mission. You have received 18,000 points as a reward.

∇ Side Mission: Capture the Supporting Male Lead, Divine King Sathalia Campbell – 100%. You have received 12,000 points as a reward, and an extra 3,000 points.

∇ Side Mission: Capture the Supporting Male Lead, Elf King Caelir Andreas – 100%. You have received 12,000 points as a reward, and an extra 3,000 points.

∇ Side Mission: Capture the Female Protagonist, Minea Griffin – 90%. You have received 10,800 points as a reward.

∇ You now have a total of 43,800 points. Would you like to use the system store?

Miao Lichen narrowed his eyes slightly, as though savoring something. After so many transmigrations, this was the first time his soul had been shattered and then reassembled. It could hardly be called a pleasant experience, yet it felt as though he had brushed against something profound, while at the same time grasping nothing at all. Still, he paid it little mind. What he was meant to know he would eventually come to understand. When his soul had scattered, he had instead become even more keenly aware of the little pink egg’s presence. More clearly than ever before, he realized that the system had always remained by his side, watching him capture his targets and offering assistance whenever he truly needed it.

Looking at the pink egg before him, it still regarded him with respect, or perhaps even fear. It cautiously studied his expression. Was this really the same egg that had once threatened to erase him at the slightest provocation? Or had it never truly held the upper hand from the very beginning, relying on nothing more than empty intimidation? No matter how he looked at it, this timid little egg hardly seemed capable of threatening anyone. Then again, it wasn’t entirely impossible…

Setting those thoughts aside, he reviewed everything that had happened in the world of magic. Once again, he had orchestrated his own death. Unlike last time, however, Miao Lichen felt none of the satisfaction of success. It simply seemed like the natural course of events. Only then did he truly realize how much he had changed. Having become so powerful that nothing could escape his control, he had begun to enjoy that feeling. Everything had gone so smoothly that success had become something he simply took for granted. Even failure carried no real consequences, causing him to treat everything as though it were merely a game. Still, perhaps it was better this way. As long as this game never reached its conclusion, he would never grow bored.

He had lived through far too many worlds, and the magic world in particular had lasted so long that he was beginning to forget what he had been like in the beginning. There was one thing he was certain of, however. Even if his former self were given the chance to choose again, he would still step into this game. A century of an ordinary, uneventful life could never compare to something this fascinating.

His fingers gently stroked the egg’s smooth surface. Watching Lovely’s pink body grow even rosier as bubbles continued to float around it, the corners of his lips curled upward. For some reason, he had the feeling that Lovely had changed shape slightly. Yet it was still unmistakably egg-shaped. Perhaps the only difference was… it had grown a little bigger?

The pink egg gave a cheerful hop and took the initiative to nuzzle against Miao Lichen. Although it lacked the expressive features of a human face, its increasingly vibrant pink hue revealed just how delighted and content it was.

Miao Lichen gently stroked Lovely’s smooth shell before turning to sit on the edge of the bed, leaning back into the comfortable chair. His fingers traced across the cover of the Beauty Album, but he made no move to open it. He had long since known what was inside. The people recorded within had never truly mattered to him. Everything he had done for them had merely been a means of using them, and what he had given had always been nothing more than actions, without any genuine emotion. Much as he hated to admit it, his heart had indeed grown increasingly cold, so cold that he was becoming less and less like a human. Even the gods and demons of the magical world had not been half as detached as he was.

He beckoned to the pink egg, watching it happily float through the air toward him. Opening the system shop, he glanced at the points section. He already knew that his capture progress for the Demon King Servius and the God King Sathalia had reached one hundred percent. What surprised him was Caelir. He clearly remembered not finishing his progress with Caelir, not to mention the strange favorability rating of that transmigrator…

∇ System Notice: Due to the system upgrade, any future changes in favorability from worlds that A’chen has already completed will now be counted toward your capture progress. This change is retroactive and applies until the destruction of each completed world.

Miao Lichen nodded. In other words, Caelir Andreas had forced his favorability all the way to one hundred simply by clinging to his memories of him. All that could be said was that the man had a talent for tormenting himself. Still, someone else’s self-inflicted suffering had worked to his advantage. As long as it benefited him, there was no reason to reject it.

Perhaps this was something he could make use of. Even so, he found it more reassuring to rely on answers he could see with his own eyes. Even he could not claim complete certainty about the ending that awaited after such a long passage of time. If that uncertainty were to cause a mission to fail… Miao Lichen’s eyes darkened slightly, their depths growing inscrutable, with an even stronger hint of danger beneath the surface. Unfortunately, the only one there to witness it was an egg that had devoted itself to him completely, and naturally, it remained utterly oblivious to the danger before it.

After exchanging 24,000 points for the Fifth-tier Angel Bloodline, Miao Lichen had 19,800 points remaining, which was not enough to continue evolving. As he expected, the next stage, the Sixth-tier Angel Bloodline, cost exactly twice as much, requiring 48,000 points.

The Fourth-tier Angel Bloodline transformed the two pairs of illusory wings behind him into three. Although he gained another pair of wings, no new angelic abilities came with the advancement. Instead, a tremendous surge of power poured through the wings and into his body, only to be completely absorbed and refined by the Qixiu internal energy within him. As expected, nothing could withstand the assimilating nature of the Qixiu internal energy. This was the true meaning of “The sea embraces every river because it has the capacity to contain them all.”

“Take me directly to the next mission world.” Before Lovely could ask, Miao Lichen had already made his decision. There was no point in lingering. During his time as Pope, he had already enjoyed every luxury imaginable, so much so that such pleasures had long since lost their appeal. The only thing the system space offered that his previous world had not was a collection of modern electronic devices, and he had not touched anything like them in years. None of them, however, could compare to the allure of meeting the unknown capture targets awaiting him in the next world.

∇ The sixth challenge world has been drawn.

∇ Main Mission 1: Capture the Male Lead, Western Sea Merman Prince Lin (Favorability 100).

∇ Main Mission 2: Capture the Female Protagonist, Eastern Sea Mermaid Princess Lian (Favorability 100).

∇ You may choose either mission or complete both.

∇ Reward: Complete 1 of 2 missions: 36,000 points. Complete 2 of 2 missions: 72,000 points + 8,000 bonus points.

∇ Failure Penalty: None.

As soon as Miao Lichen felt his surroundings shift, a pungent stench hit him. It was the smell of rotting matter mixed with the fresh fragrance of vegetation. Individually, neither scent was particularly offensive, but together they formed an odor that was thoroughly revolting. Lowering his gaze to the clothes he was wearing, he felt his stomach turn. After so many transmigrations, every identity he had inhabited had at least been clean and presentable. This time, however, the system had succeeded in shattering even his lowest expectations.

He was sitting inside a small house, or more accurately, a tiny room. It contained nothing more than a narrow bed and an enormous worktable. The table was covered with all kinds of miscellaneous items scattered across it without any order. Although some of the objects were unfamiliar, enough of them resembled laboratory equipment for him to recognize it as a workbench. It had probably once been ivory white, but now it was buried beneath layers of greasy, unidentified substances that gave off a pungent odor. The room’s only plant was an enormous man-eating flower. The moment it saw him approach, it opened its massive jaws as though eager to take a bite out of him. Clearly, it had yet to be fully domesticated. Living with a carnivorous plant that constantly coveted its owner’s flesh… the original host certainly had an interesting lifestyle.

What Miao Lichen found most unbearable, however, was his own filthy appearance. He did not even need a mirror to know how unkempt he looked. His hair was undoubtedly as messy as a bird’s nest, probably with some unidentified sticky substance clinging to it as an added bonus. This was definitely an oversight. He should have had Lovely pay closer attention to the hygiene of the bodies it assigned him.

Without the slightest hesitation, Miao Lichen walked out of the room before casually giving the unsightly shack a merciful end. After ordering Lovely to restore his perfect appearance, he finally found the mood to lean against a nearby coral formation and receive the memories of this body. The process was remarkably brief. The original host’s memories consisted almost entirely of a wizard’s spells and magical research, with little else of note. Even so, the last fragments of those memories allowed him to glimpse the beginning of the story.

Wizard Chen had gone out in search of materials for his magic when he heard rumors of the most beautiful princess in these seas, Lian, the beauty known throughout the ocean as the Pearl of the Eastern Sea. She was said to be the youngest daughter of the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea and the most favored of his three daughters. Even without reading her profile in the Beauty Album, Miao Lichen could already guess how the story would unfold.

Once the wizard had begun thinking about fathering an heir to inherit his legacy, hearing of such an extraordinary beauty naturally led him to a single conclusion: he would take her for himself. Miao Lichen opened the Beauty Album, and quickly skimmed through its contents.

Sure enough, the story had unfolded exactly as he had imagined. Unable to bear the restrictions imposed by her royal father, the spirited princess had secretly slipped out of the Dragon Palace, only to be abducted by the wizard, who had already set his sights on her. Judging by the state he had been in when Miao Lichen first arrived, it would have been far stranger if the pampered princess had developed even the slightest bit of affection for the original host. In fact, she treated the wizard as though he were a terrifying monster.

After that, no one cared whether the princess had left the Dragon Palace of her own accord. All anyone remembered was that the wizard had kidnapped her and even tried to force her into marriage. That, naturally, was the cue for the hero and the prince to make their entrance. Lin was the princess’s fiancé, the Crown Prince of the Western Sea. They were a perfect match in both status and background. After slaying the wizard, the prince and princess lived happily ever after. The world he had transmigrated into this time was actually… a fairy tale. As far as Miao Lichen could remember, only fairy tales could be this childish.

Then again, if the wizard were no longer ugly, it was hard to say whom the princess would choose. In a fairy tale, the princess was destined to end up with the most perfect man. If the wizard surpassed the prince… then perhaps the ending itself could be rewritten. His task was to turn that perhaps into a certainty.

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