Chapter 70
Chapter 70
[Congratulations! You have received Joseph’s Blessing.]
[Joseph’s Blessing] Details:
– The player may use NPC Joseph’s skill, Immobilization. When activated, green eyes will grow across the user’s body. Players or NPCs who see the green eyes have a chance of falling into a trance, immobilizing them.
Usage Limit: Three times per day.
– The player may use NPC Joseph’s skill, Black Diamond Shaping. When activated, rough black diamonds can be formed into any desired shape for attack or defense. Black diamonds possess tremendous offensive power and can be used as weapons even in their rough state.
Created weapons are permanent. If acquired by anyone other than Xiao Huai, they will automatically disappear after three hours.
Usage Limit: Once per day.
[Note: A message from Joseph: Mm… As your soul companion, I’m not sure whether these blessings are good enough. By the way, those are all the skills I have!]
Xiao Huai laughed. It was not as though he had meant to pry into every secret Joseph had.
Joseph’s Blessing contained both of his skills, though, in truth, the second could take on countless forms.
Black Diamond Shaping was anything but useless.
More than half the people in the Diamond Exhibition Hall had disappeared, and countless fragments filled the sky.
The broken pieces crunched beneath Xiao Huai’s feet as he walked across them. Ahead, he saw a man whose body had already half-disintegrated into fragments.
The man sat propped against the floor. Sunlight shone upon his brown hair, and his blue suit had long since been torn beyond recognition.
“Count, may I speak with you?”
The Count turned to Xiao Huai. “You. I thought you’d already left with the others.”
Xiao Huai wanted to leave too. He was in so much pain he had nearly gone numb.
But every story needed a period at the end.
He sat beside the Count and handed him the Wraith Child’s crystal ball.
“This is for you.”
Grief flickered through the Count’s eyes. “They’re only memories. We can never return to the past.”
Xiao Huai sighed helplessly and brushed a hand over the crystal ball.
It began playing his entire conversation with Joseph in the third space.
The crystal ball could store memories, a useful function when there was no time to explain.
“Then, Your Excellency, would you like to make this promise possible?”
A gentle smile rested in Xiao Huai’s eyes. Sunlight fell across his long, thick lashes, and when he lowered his gaze, the sharpness in his eyes softened.
The Count froze, his eyes threatening to fill with tears again. Xiao Huai stared blankly for a second, then hurriedly took out a Soul Contract and handed it to him.
His first impression of the Count had been that of an aloof aristocrat. But now that the Count had only just broken free of control…
It turned out he was a complete crybaby.
So moved he was almost sobbing outright, the Count wrote his name on the contract.
Ben Carr.
“Carr, may I call you that?” Xiao Huai asked, looking at the contract.
Carr nodded. “Mm.”
The disintegration of Carr’s body stopped. Xiao Huai extended a hand. “From this day forward, we’re soul companions. I look forward to working with you.”
[Ding! Abnormal-status NPC Ben Carr has successfully signed the Soul Contract. Soul relationship successfully established.]
[Abnormal NPC data detected. Original outcome upon instance destruction: Existence erased.]
[NPC is player Xiao Huai’s soul companion. Calculating priority…]
[The system cannot directly punish a player’s soul companion. Post-destruction erasure outcome amended. NPC will enter dormancy in the soul-companion space and may emerge only when the supernatural ability is used.]
Two people whose existences should have been erased were spared, all because of Xiao Huai.
They now had a chance to meet again in the future.
And Xiao Huai believed that day would come soon.
A massive window suddenly appeared before him.
[To all players: The second-floor instance *Diamond Magnate* has been permanently closed due to abnormal circumstances. Total number of players who cleared the instance across the entire server: Two.]
[Players: Anonymous Player and Xiao Huai.]
Xiao Huai froze when he saw his own name in the window.
At the time, he had decided that someone ranked in the thirty-thousands had no reason to hide his name, so he had never enabled the anonymity function.
Now that his name had been announced across the server, certain interested parties might remember it.
But why had he cleared the instance too?
He knew the anonymous player was most likely Lu Yuanshi.
But him? Why did his attempt count as a success?
Just as he was about to question the system, Carr noticed his confusion.
“Are you wondering why you cleared the instance?”
“Mm.”
“Because of me.” Carr smiled faintly.
“I declared you the most beautiful diamond in the entire hall. Your soul shines brighter than any diamond I have ever seen. So before I disappeared, I used the last of my authority to change the result of your mission.”
Xiao Huai was surprised. The system soon announced its congratulations.
[Ding! Second-floor instance *Diamond Magnate* successfully completed.]
[Calculating number of successful players… Number of players who successfully cleared the instance: 2.]
[Congratulations to player Xiao Huai for earning the highest rating among this instance’s players: S! Ranking Points awarded: 2,000. Current Rank: 28,750.]
[Calculating rewards: Standby time awarded: 7 days. Current time remaining: 9 days. Base livestream popularity awarded: 5,000. Current popularity: 8,100. Survival Coins awarded: 10,000. Current balance: 32,502 Survival Coins.]
[Congratulations to player Xiao Huai for receiving a total of 3,542 views in the Gods’ Livestream. Of those viewers, 2,982 gods have taken a strong interest in you and expressed their anticipation for your next livestream.]
[Notice: You have received gifts from the gods. Open Gift Storage?]
Clearing a second-floor instance also meant he had unlocked the third floor.
He no longer needed to search for another game on the second floor and could continue directly to a third-floor challenge.
A beam of light descended from above as the system announced, [Second-floor instance *Diamond Magnate* is closing.]
Xiao Huai called out to Carr one last time. “Carr! Thanks! When we meet again, let’s get some barbecue skewers!”
A smile lingered in Carr’s eyes. After the way he had treated Xiao Huai and all the injuries he had caused him, he had never expected Xiao Huai not to care.
His smile turned bitter.
Xiao Huai caught the change at once.
“Carr, don’t forget that we’re soul companions now. What is there that we can’t put behind us? When I entrust my back to you, you’d better stay sharp and guard it properly.”
Carr stared at him for a moment, then nodded firmly. “Mm!”
* * *
The second-floor game lobby.
When Xiao Huai emerged from the exit to *Diamond Magnate*, many people turned to look at him.
The first reason was that the system had only recently announced the permanent closure of the *Diamond Magnate* instance across the entire server.
The second was that Xiao Huai’s injuries were frighteningly severe.
Even his eyes had been half-corrupted.
“My god, what happened inside *Diamond Magnate*? How did he end up like that?”
“No idea, but permanent instance closures aren’t exactly common.”
“Could that guy be Xiao Huai? Several others just came out of *Diamond Magnate*, though, and they all looked fine.”
The crowd whispered among themselves.
Xiao Huai narrowed his eyes as a new notification appeared on his system interface.