Chapter 42: Gold Coins and Rewards (Combined Chapter)

Actually, as for the connection between the world of Nier, where 2B came from, and his own Cairo Game World, Li Nuo could not figure it out himself.

He had been able to travel to the story of Nier only because he discovered the "YoRHa" symbol in a reality script.

Perhaps Cairo was the future of Nier, or perhaps they were two neighboring planets not far apart.

However, he did not plan to ponder over it too much.

One should only tackle problems matching one's capacity.

For instance, right now,

A crack had appeared on the tombstone of the transmission mailbox.

Li Nuo hurried over, first noticing that in addition to his own ID number 5900, 2B’s 5950 had been added to the mailbox, which meant that the two of them were now essentially sharing a single mailbox.

How stingy.

When he clicked to open the mailbox, 2B watched from the side, observing closely as a cat-like curiosity slumbered deep within her mind.

Inside the mailbox was a friend request sent by Chen Shou. After accepting it, a message came through containing 500 gold coins.

"Didn't you say the friendship fee was a joke?" Li Nuo's gaze moved downward, and he saw a paragraph sent by Chen Shou: I got enough gold coins to keep me alive until next month, and there is a huge surplus. Thank you. I have nothing else to give, but I hope you won't despise these 500 gold coins.

Big Bro Fat was, after all, a worldly man who understood proper social etiquette and measured his actions well. Although they had gone through an adventure together, they were still not quite familiar with each other, so sending a gift to express gratitude at this moment was quite reasonable.

Li Nuo knew very well that at this time, all he needed to do was accept it and reply with a "smiley face."

......

In Chen Shou's space, he sat in front of the tombstone, waiting anxiously for a reply.

"I wonder if Li Nuo and Brother Ma will think it's too little..."

Soon, the tombstone transmitted Li Nuo's reply, and he clicked it open.

Li Nuo: Smiley face.

Chen Shou: "?"

You actually use text as an emoji!

......

Just as Li Nuo finished replying to Chen Shou's message, he happened to receive a friend request from Malger.

After adding him as a friend, Malger—finding the trigger method from goodness knows where—actually made a "video call" through the tombstone...

A small concave frame the size of a passport photo appeared on the tombstone, displaying a black-and-white image of Malger’s straight face.

It looked just like he was already dead.

Yet not entirely dead.

Malger started right off the bat by saying, "Li Nuo, do you have a title?"

Li Nuo replied, "Eye-poking Charlatan."

Malger: "Hmph, low-class."

Li Nuo: "And you? Sphincter Salesman?"

Malger frowned: "Are you spying on me?"

Li Nuo: "Don't tell me your title ability is the infinite creation of turd blocks?"

Malger: "Hmm... Did you get a spoiler?"

"Holy shit..." Li Nuo rubbed his forehead, his teeth aching as he said speechlessly, "Brother Ma, can you be normal for once?"

Malger replied: "Hearing that coming from your mouth feels like being called dirty by a pig."

Li Nuo changed the subject: "Stop talking nonsense. Titles should be a special channel that grants players early skills, and getting one early is definitely beneficial. However, judging by that title of yours, it's hard to rule out that the system deliberately wants to label you. This system is quite reasonable..."

"Not reasonable at all. It's clearly labeling people, downright sloppy... Huh?" Malger asked, "Why does that inflatable doll look a bit like 2B?"

"It is her. I captured her with a Poké Ball. Details later."

Malger: "Take care of your health."

Li Nuo: "..."

Malger suddenly asked, "Does Miss 2B have a title?"

He seemed to harbor a deep obsession with titles.

2B said coldly: "It seems to be... High Heel Fiend." She opened her panel and read out: "High Heel Fiend: Movement speed increases by 6% when running on tiptoes."

"Uh..." Li Nuo frowned slightly, thinking that it was reasonable enough for 2B to run fast enough to kick up wind pressure while wearing high heels.

"Alright..." Malger didn't know how to respond, so he said, "Actually, I just wanted to say that the rewards this time are quite good, and I look forward to our next cooperation. However, the amount of gold coins will probably allow me to slack off for a while. If you need anything, contact me, and I will transform into the radiance of the Holy Maiden..."

Bip—

Without waiting for him to finish, Li Nuo cut off the communication, then sat on the ground and said thoughtfully, "He reminded me though, I almost forgot the most important thing: gold coins."

Li Nuo opened his panel to check his gold coins. The reason he hadn't looked until now wasn't because he didn't care, but because he knew he must have a large reserve of gold coins, so he wasn't in a hurry to check.

After looking, he lowered his head in silence.

Too many...

"What's wrong with you?" 2B asked, standing nearby.

Li Nuo showed her the panel. Since they were special friends bound together and iron-clad partners sharing a mortgage, he didn't need to worry about her knowing how many gold coins he had.

"11,596 gold coins..."

I don't even have this much money in real life... Li Nuo roared inwardly.

2B didn't quite understand: "Is that a lot?"

Li Nuo took off his mask and looked at her. Miss, you are truly flexing.

"Handing over 3,000 gold coins a month, this little bit of money of mine is enough for me to lie flat for three months."

"Lie flat?" A mental "ding" seemed to ring in 2B's mind as she triggered a new, strange vocabulary word.

"It means becoming like a mechanical lifeform—not eating or drinking, yet living very well as a piece of trash." Li Nuo quickly calculated some numbers and found an interesting fact: "Learning skills and buying supplies both require gold coins. It looks like you're rich in cash, but actually, going through a mission costs a considerable amount. If you don't do side quests, you simply can't replenish it. Theoretically speaking, if you always just follow the main quests, you'll still remain in a state of permanent poverty. Ah, 2B, do you have any gold coins?"

"I was recognized as a 'player', so some of the rewards you obtained also fed back into me." 2B responded, a slightly troubled expression appearing on her expressionless face. She was still somewhat clumsy at operating the panel, but she adapted fast enough. Four or five seconds later, she opened her panel and read out: "4,500."

Li Nuo deduced that these gold coins came from the main quests and the true main quest settlement rewards. He sat on a folding stool and laid out everything in his inventory slots and on his person onto the floor.

For this mission, he had one health potion left from the store purchase. Aside from the everyday gear items he needed to keep on hand—the folding stool, the iron pipe, Kenny's jacket, and Emil's mask—his biggest gain was getting a gun. However, he had to figure out a solution for ammunition. Li Nuo had a slightly risky idea in his mind: making his own bullets, though there was no rush right now.

The most special thing among all the items was the [Summoning-type Magic Materia]. Ever since their return, the Magic Materia had gone back into dormancy. Perhaps he would only know how to trigger its effect again once he entered a script.

In addition, because 2B was judged to be a player rather than an elf, the [Poké Ball] had now returned to Li Nuo's mailbox, though it had reverted to an ordinary Poké Ball.

He took out the [Firecracker] he had previously placed in the reward pool of the [Probability System].

Because he had invested 500 gold coins before the last mission, the quality had been boosted by 50% after conversion.

Coupled with the unconventional way he completed the mission, he had ended up with a strange gadget.

It still retained the appearance of a firecracker, but its function was completely unrecognizable.

[Dawn Cannon]

[Quality: Common]

[Effect: Has a probability of summoning a chicken from another world to be fired as a cannonball. 48-hour cooldown after a single use.]

[Description: Don't underestimate the chicken.]

Li Nuo: "Does 'Dawn' refer to a rooster crowing at daybreak?"

"How interesting." 2B half-squatted to observe the panel of the [Dawn Cannon] that Li Nuo had set out, and asked, "What is a chicken? I've never heard of this kind of cannonball."

"A type of summoned creature," Li Nuo casually bluffed, intending to place the [Dawn Cannon] in the room first and instructing 2B not to mess around with the firecracker regardless of whether anything was happening.

After organizing his things, he threw the Poké Ball back into the reward pool of the [Probability System]. It didn't trigger the reward pool, but since he still had plenty of time, he intended to wait and see for a bit longer.

That left only the [Blueprint for Emil's Vending Cart] in his inventory slots. To be honest, he couldn't understand the things recorded on it.

However, if you don't understand, you can learn.

Li Nuo planned to buy some machinery-related books in a few days to study on his own, which would also serve as a review of the bullet-making process.

Back in the day when his family had flying cockroaches infestation, he had learned how to make bullets for that exact purpose, and then aimed inferior homemade bullets at a cockroach and heated them over a candle. Later on, Li Nuo's mother taught herself how to patch drywall.

As for 2B, she only had one item left: she had recast a portion of her physical body to become an initial player, and her entire outfit now consisted of just an eyepatch.

[Black Goggles]

[Quality: Epic]

[Effect: Displays the target's HUD.]

[Description: Oh, so only you get a health bar, huh?]

This was a divine artifact.

Because it allowed him to see the opponent's health bar and the damage value of his own attacks.

Beyond that, what caught Li Nuo's attention was that [Radiant Wedge Stone], an item from the Souls series, was treated as an upgrade material. He tried it out at the crafting bench in the cabin, only to find that it could only upgrade bound gear, and the very first upgrade required 600 gold coins.

Considering there was no rush for the next "dungeon," he didn't linger on this.

"Lastly..." Li Nuo began rummaging through the bookshelf.

"2B, you have an [Identity], right?"

"Yes," 2B nodded. "Do you want to see it?"

"Yes."

The moment 2B displayed her [Identity], Li Nuo once again understood how vast the natural gap between individuals could be.

[Identity: The Focal Point]

[Activation Condition: Speak a classic and chuunibyou famous quote, such as "I'm going to be King of the Pirates!", "It's not my fault, it's the world's!", "This is the choice of Steins;Gate!", please deliver it with feeling and action.]

[Deactivation Condition: Cry]

[Effect 1: The price of purchasing any item within scripts is reduced by 50%.]

[Effect 2: Even if not activated at the end of the mission, the total experience points gained are increased by 10%, shared with teammates.]

[Effect 3: If active at the end of main or side quests, experience points gained are increased by 40%, and gold coins obtained are increased by 30%, shared with teammates.]

[Effect 4: Slightly easier to increase the probability of encountering high-intensity enemies.]

When there are too many good pieces of news, a person tends to become numb.

Like Li Nuo right now.

The buff provided by [The Focal Point] was comparable to catching a volcanic eruption one second before freezing to death, but he just felt... it was fine, basic operations, used to it.

He found a white-covered book on the bookshelf in the room that he hadn't seen before.

Just like usual, the moment he opened the book, a massive amount of information poured into the heads of Li Nuo and 2B.

"What is this?" 2B asked.

She watched Li Nuo stare with dead fish eyes and say, "Mental rape, you'll get used to it."

According to the prompt in the book, the possibility of an [Identity] forming was extremely minuscule; one had to achieve something in a certain field that was peerless or nearly unique.

Li Nuo's [Near-Death Survivor] generally referred to being not far from death, with the screening condition being a constitution that saved budget on congenital design, and most acquired diseases did not meet the standard.

2B's [The Focal Point] generally referred to being the most dazzling one under the spotlight, simply put, the protagonist.

Moreover, it had to be an extremely special protagonist within a certain region of that world.

For example, if there were an identity called [Coprophage], the person capable of bearing this identity could certainly not be Malger. After all, he only dared to touch turd blocks; he probably didn't like to eat them... probably.

"Aside from the two of us, there are 10 other identities..." Li Nuo stared at 2B's panel and said.

2B asked with puzzlement: "I just don't understand what the stated activation and deactivation conditions mean. What is chuunibyou? Why can crying deactivate it?"

Listening to her, Li Nuo shifted his gaze to the personal panel right next to 2B's.

Because of the experience-sharing bond of special friends, 2B's level had risen to 20.

And then came the most terrifying part.

Due to her identity as an android, she stored memories of a vast array of assassination techniques. These were defaulted as skills brought into the "Endless Corridor," so her skill panel contained a lot of items.

[Basic Joint Locks], [Unrestricted Combat Arts], [Fencing Thrusts], [Basic Blade Techniques], [Blunt Weapon Striking], [Advanced Legwork], [Step-back], [High Heel Sprint Mastery]...

Li Nuo: "How about this: I'll teach you chuunibyou, and you teach me these moves that can kill dinosaurs."

2B nodded: "Okay."

......

Li Nuo logged out of the "Endless Corridor" and returned to his cabin.

The wall clock showed that only two hours had passed since entering the previous script, but he felt as though a whole week had gone by.

2B said that she still had some system calculations pending and temporarily held the privilege of permanently residing in the space; she might not be able to leave the space until after level 25.

This reminded Li Nuo of a crucial piece of information hidden within that cheap-sounding voice after completing the newbie screening:

——"Please raise your level to 25 first. At that time, I will appear again and slowly elaborate the true purpose to you."

So what on earth was the "Endless Corridor"?

The warm twilight light shone into the room, and the curtains fluttered in the breeze.

Willow catkins drifted inside. He stood up and closed the window. As the warm wind blew, the spring outside the window and his own rebirth arrived together.

Li Nuo leaned back against the sofa, slumping down, blankly staring at the ceiling.

His brain gradually gave up thinking. He was tired; even though he had only gone through a single script, the prolonged high-tension state was followed by extreme exhaustion. In scripts full of danger everywhere, if safety wasn't assured, he didn't even have a single moment of rest.

Now, in the empty room, there was no mother, no teammates, no players, no resistance fighters, no androids, no 2B. Just him, all alone. The sudden, abrupt silence instead gave rise to boundless reverie.

He couldn't help thinking that if there really were a god in this world, that magnificent entity capable of granting a second life was truly quite annoying.

When he was resurrected only to learn that he would wander through endless stories, the crisis and the excitement from the depths of his soul would ultimately destroy all his fantasies of a peaceful life—or rather, a seemingly calm and uneventful life actually harbored turbulent undercurrents all along.

The twilight light and the contrasting shadows alternated on Li Nuo's face. Through this script, he knew that the peaceful days he longed for could now have a full stop drawn over them.

Yet life still had to go on; for instance, his stomach was howling ungratefully.

"What to eat? First of all, rule out instant noodles."

Li Nuo answered his own question as he stood up. Having been lonely for too long, he had long since developed the habit of talking to himself—though perhaps it was time to change that habit too.

Walking over to the refrigerator, the moment he opened the fridge door, his eyes caught a carton of "Cairo Yogurt."

"The Cairo Game World, what on earth is it?" Li Nuo took out the yogurt, took a sip, tilted his head, and began gargling with a gurgling sound. After swallowing, his first reaction was that it tasted expired.

"This Cairo seems to involve a lot of fields."

He pulled out a stalk of green onion, preparing to go cook some noodles. Since the lights weren't on, the room was dim.

In games, this kind of setting was just right for placing a ghost around the corner to scare people.

Thinking of this, Li Nuo went to turn on the light.

——Click.

The light didn't come on.

"Huh?"

He tried again, but it still didn't come on.

"Cairo doesn't involve horror games too, does it?"

Just as he was thinking this.

The front door rang.